Progress on Nagorno-Karabakh talks fuel optimism for Turkey-Armenia deal

“We are closely monitoring the process between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The progress will open doors for a more comprehensive peace in the entire region including between Turkey and Armenia,” a senior Turkish diplomat told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review over the weekend.

Turkey and Armenia, neighboring countries, signed two protocols for the development of relations and opening the sealed border in 2009 but could not complete the ratification process due in part to Azerbaijan’s strong reaction to Turkey’s actions. Ankara later declared that it wouldn’t open its border with Armenia unless this country withdraws from occupied Azeri territories and a deal is reached between the two rivals. Armenia occupied Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region in the early 1990s, following the demise of the Soviet Union.

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev met last week in Russia’s southern city of Astrakhan under the mediation of President Dimitri Medvedev and agreed to exchange prisoners of war and victims' bodies. Medvedev said he was expecting more progress during the next bilateral meeting between the two parties, to be held on the sidelines of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, meeting.

“We welcome that the Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders agreed on several humanitarian issues during a summit hosted by Russian President Medvedev," the Turkish foreign ministry said in a written statement Sunday.

“Turkey hopes that the Astrakhan Summit will make positive contributions to the solution process by adding momentum to the efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. We also wish that steps to be taken on humanitarian issues will be supported with concrete initiatives. Turkey is determined to fully support initiatives that will serve creation of a ground for compromise between the parties.”


/Hurriyet Daily News/