Agence France Presse — English
June 24, 2005 Friday 1:58 PM GMT
Turkish PM to visit Azerbaijan
ANKARA
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit close ally
Azerbaijan next week to discuss regional developments, his office
said Friday.
Erdogan will have talks with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and other
senior officials on Wednesday and Thursday over “recent developments
in the southern Caucasus” and bilateral issues, the statement said.
Both Turkey and Azerbaijan are at loggerheads with their common
neighbor Armenia.
Turkey is under European Union pressure to normalize ties with
Armenia, but worries that reconciliatory moves sought by the bloc may
damage its alliance with Azerbaijan, with which it also has close
ethnic bonds.
Ankara has refused to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia and
has kept its border with the country closed, out of solidarity with
Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh
enclave.
Turkish-Armenian ties have also been poisoned by Yerevan’s camapign
to have the World War I massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman
Empire internationally recognized as genocide.