Today.Az » Politics » Turkish deputy: "Normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations impossible until occupied Azerbaijani lands returned"
13 March 2009 [10:04] - Today.Az
Normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations is impossible until Azerbaijan's occupied lands are returned.
"Establishing Turkey-Armenia relations is impossible until Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region and other lands are returned," Turkey-Azerbaijan inter-parliamentary Friendship Group co-chair Mustafa Kabakchi told Trend News in a telephone conversation from Ankara.
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan said at his speech in the International Diplomat Academy in France that "the Armenian genocide" will not impact Turkey-Armenia ties. "We are close to restoration of relations between the two states and opening of borders without putting forward any condition," Armenian Public Television quoted Nalbandyan as saying.
Kabakchi said Azerbaijan is an integral part of the Turkic world. "There are Turkic people in the world. Turkic people have their own states. One of the states is Turkey and another is Azerbaijan. We will never discuss interests of our people - Azerbaijani nation," he added.
Kabakchi said cooperation with Armenia can be matter of debate as soon as those responsible for the massacre against civilians in the Azerbaijani occupied lands including Khojali are punished.
/Trend News/
"Turkey has always stood and will always stand by Azerbaijan. We are descendants of the same nation. We will not take a step which would harm our fraternal relations," Kabakchi added.
Kabakchi said Turkey has acted as mediator in resolution of military conflicts recently as this is Turkey's mission.
"Turkey aims not to take somebody's side, but to end war and conflict. Turkey supports peace across the world," Kabakchi said.
Armenian-Turkish ties have been severed since 1993 because of Armenia's false "genocide" claims and occupation of 20% of Azerbaijani lands. Turkish President Abdullah Gul visited Yerevan on September 6, 2008 at the invitation of his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisyan to watch Armenia-Turkey football match within the European Cup. Efforts have been made since then to normalize ties between the two countries.
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