"If Armenia really stands for peace and stability in the Caucasus, it should withdraw from occupied Azerbaijani territory"

If Armenia really stands for peace and stability in the Caucasus, it should withdraw from the occupied Azerbaijani territory, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in New York, the Cihan news agency reported.

"Everyone must respect the territorial integrity of another country, and sooner or later, relations between Baku and Yerevan will have to return to normal," Davutoglu said adding that restoration of the Azerbaijani-Armenian relations remain as the main condition for normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey.

Davutoglu said the Yerevan- Ankara protocols on establishing diplomatic relations signed in Zurich in October 2009are still in force. Davutoglu called on the Armenian lobby abroad to stop impeding peace in the region, by speculating the events of 1915, which Armenians deliberately present as "genocide."

"Do not close the doors that opened for establishing peace, and do not blame Turkey for this," -Davutoglu said.

Turkey seeks to improve relations with all the Armenians residing in different countries, but not exclusively with the authorities in Yerevan, because both people - the Turkish and Armenian - historically lived side by side, he said.

Davutoglu named as unacceptable the falsification of the events of the past century, which Armenians present as "genocide" equating it with the obliteration of the Jewish people in Europe - the Holocaust.

"No Turkish city has and never had the Armenian ghetto. The events of 1915 affected both parties - the Turkish and Armenian, so the spread propaganda [of the Armenian genocide] is false. If the Turks were guilty of "genocide", then how we should name the extermination of the Turkic peoples in the Caucasus and the Balkans. It is necessary to hear all sides, "Davutoglu said.

Davutoglu said Turkey is not satisfied with the situation of neighboring Armenia, which is deteriorating day by day.


/Trend/