Turkish Defense Minister: One of the main obstacles to normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations is occupation of Nagorno Karabakh

I think that you jumped to the conclusion”, Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul told APA US bureau exclusively. Turkey undertook within the roadmap to improve relations with Armenia. According to some reports, the final result of this agreement should be the opening of the borders. However Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Baku that the borders wouldn’t be opened. “If Armenia fulfills its obligations within the roadmap, would you face difficulties to keep promise to Azerbaijan?” , APA correspondent asked Gonul. The Defense Minister said: “How can you tell that the borders should be opened according to the roadmap? Don’t rush to prejudge”.

Turkish delegation of leading political and business figures headed by Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul is attending the 28th US-Turkey conference in Washington. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Chief of General Staff Ilker Basbug also joined the three-day conference. The participants held consultations on energy and defense issues on the first day of the conference. Vecdi Gonul said in his address to the conference that the United States lent serious assistance to the realization of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project. “Turkey insists to carry out other regional projects due to this support”, said Gonul.

The US-Turkey conference is organized annually by the American-Turkish Council and Turkish-American Business Forum. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will address the conference tomorrow.

The foreign minister also attended the UN Security Council meeting in New York on June 1 where Turkey took the Council Presidency for a month.

/APA/