ZAMAN Turkey
April 23 2004

Three-Way Meeting on Karabag to be Held at NATO Summit

Turkey is preparing for a three-way meeting to discuss the re-opening
of the Turkish-Armenian border and a solution for the Nagarno-Karabag
(Karabakh) issue during the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
summit to be held in Istanbul this June.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul invited his Azerbaijani and Armenian
counterparts during his trip to Baku last week. Meanwhile, Armenian
Foreign Minister, Vartan Oskanyan, announced that Armenia supports a
three-way meeting on the condition that they take up “regional
issues.” Oskanyan argued that a meeting only on the Karabakh issue
would be meaningless since Turkey cannot be a moderator.

Now, with Turkey’s involvement in the Nagarno-Karabakh issue, a
multi-phased transition plan will be the focus. Thus, Armenia will
retreat from the five regions that it occupied, the
Azerbaijani-Armenian border will be re-opened, and Turkey will
overcome the border issue with Armenia using the Syrian model.

04.23.2004
Salih Boztas
From: Baghdasarian