Turkish Daily News
Sept 24 2004

Foreign Minister Gul Meets His Armenian Counterpart

ANKARA – Turkish Daily News 24/09/2004 17:36

Talking about the solution process, Oskanyan interpreted the goal of
a recent meeting of foreign ministers in Prague was to arrange talks
between the two countries’ presidents

Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanyan told a news conference in
Yerevan they have never lost hope of normalizing relations with
Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Oskanyan said he would meet Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on
the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly meetings
in New York. “Our expectations from this meeting will be the same
again: to gain a positive development for furthering relations,”
Oskanyan was quoted as saying.

Talking about the solution process, Oskanyan interpreted the goal of
a recent meeting of foreign ministers in Prague was to arrange talks
between the two countries’ presidents. Oskanyan said the Armenian and
Azeri presidents, Robert Kocharyan and Ilkham Aliyev, could not reach
a new understanding in their meeting in Astana on Sept. 15. “Contrary
to expectations, neither president gave their foreign ministries any
orders to begin the second stage that is far closer to a settlement
of the problem,” Oskanyan said.

On the other hand, Armenian President Kocharyan also made a statement
in Yerevan about the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. Kocharyan said the
Armenian directorship in Nagorno Karabakh was legal and all related
parts, including the Armenian directorship, should be able to attend
the negotiations for finding a solution to the conflict.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a 13-year-old dispute, which has dragged on since
a 1994 cease-fire ended fighting that killed more than 30,000 people
and drove a million from their homes. Azerbaijan refuses to negotiate
directly with the Karabakh Armenians and Turkey refuses to establish
diplomatic relations with Armenia. Turkey closed its gate with
Armenia and severed its diplomatic ties a decade ago, in protest of
Armenia’s occupation of the Azeri territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Foreign ministers of Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan held a trilateral
meeting earlier this year to discuss a “phased approach” under which
Armenia would gradually withdraw from the occupied Azeri territories
and Ankara would normalize its ties, in phases, with Yerevan in
return. But no concrete progress has yet been achieved.