Azeri leader, Turkish foreign minister discuss Karabakh, Cyprus

ANS Radio, Baku
19 May 04

[Presenter] Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s official visit
to Belgium continues. President Aliyev will meet today NATO
Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. At the end of the second day
of his visit to Brussels, President Aliyev met the Turkish deputy
prime minister and foreign minister, Abdullah Gul. ANS’s special
correspondent, Qanira Pasayeva, has a report on this.

[Correspondent, on the phone] Abdullah Gul advanced a proposal over
the Nagornyy Karabakh problem. That was about the trilateral meeting
of the Armenian, Azerbaijani and Turkish foreign ministers. Asked if
such a meeting was expected within the framework of NATO’s Istanbul
summit in late June, Gul did not rule out this. Armenia also positively
reacted to the issue.

As far as the Cyprus problem is concerned, Gul expressed his
satisfaction with the fact that Azerbaijan had supported Turkey in
the Cyprus affair within the framework of the Islamic Conference
Organization in Jidda [as heard]. Some displeasure was observed,
which mainly stemmed from the Turkish media reports on the absence of
the Azerbaijani parliamentary delegation in [the Council of Europe]
debates over Cyprus in Strasbourg. However, Gul said that such events
might not affect the Azerbaijani-Turkish relations.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had a working breakfast organized
by the European Politics Centre [EPC]. Officials from the EPC also
attended the breakfast party.

[Passage omitted: details of president’s working schedule]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress