TURKEY RENEWS SUPPORT FOR BAKU OVER KARABAKH

Agence France Presse — English
April 4, 2006 Tuesday 3:15 PM GMT

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Tuesday renewed his country’s
support for Azerbaijan in its territorial dispute with its fellow
former Soviet republic of Armenia.

The dispute over the ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabkh
“should be resolved within the framework of the territorial integrity
of Azerbaijan,” Sezer told reporters after meeting his Azerbaijani
counterpart Ilham Aliyev.

This is “in line with international norms,” Sezer added.

The status of the mountainous region, controlled by Armenian forces
since Yerevan and Baku signed a ceasefire in 1994 after a six-year
war, remains unresolved and Turkey has backed the Azerbaijanis in
the dispute.

The ceasefire is periodically broken and tensions have escalated
as troops form both sides make the annual move into high mountain
positions during the spring thaw. At least half a dozen soldiers have
been killed this year alone.

Sezer was speaking at a news conference during a two-day official
visit to Baku, where he also lauded economic ties with the booming
Caspian Sea oil economy, saying total trade volume would hit one
billion dollars (800,000 euros) in 2006.

Both Turkey and Azerbaijan have severed ties with Armenia, closing
borders and imposing an economic blockade on Yerevan as a result of
the Karabakh dispute.

Ankara 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.

Turkish-Armenian ties have also been strained by Yerevan’s campaign to
have the World War I massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire
internationally recognized as genocide.