BAKU NOT WORRIED OVER TURKEY-ARMENIA TALKS

Today’s Zaman
July 23 2008
Turkey

Azerbaijan is not concerned over secret talks between Armenia
and regional ally Turkey, a spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry has said. Spokesman Khazar Ibrahim said on Monday that the
Azerbaijani government was interested in Turkey’s official position,
which Ankara said has not changed.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan confirmed last week that there
had been secret talks between Turkish Foreign Ministry diplomats and
Armenian officials earlier this month but underlined that such talks
were taking place from time to time to discuss ways to normalize
relations between the two estranged neighbors. The Foreign Ministry
also said no special meaning should be attributed to these talks.

"What is important for us is the official statements of the Turkish
officials. Mr. Babacan said Turkey’s policy has not changed, and we
hope that future steps Turkey will take will be in line with this
policy," Ibrahim, speaking at a press conference, was quoted by the
Anatolia news agency late on Monday as saying.

Turkey closed its border and severed its diplomatic ties with Armenia
in protest of Armenia’s occupation of the Azerbaijani territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s. Ankara says normalization of
ties depends on Armenian withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh, a change
of policy in Yerevan on claims of an Armenian genocide at the hands
of the Ottoman Empire and formal recognition of the Turkish-Armenian
border by Armenia.

The Turkish-Armenian talks, which reportedly took place on July 8 in
Switzerland, came amid calls for dialogue from Armenian President
Serzh Sarksyan. Sarksyan repeated his call for closer ties with
Turkey on Monday, telling a news conference that the improvement
of ties between Armenia and Turkey is mutually beneficial. Sarksyan
said earlier this month that he had invited his Turkish counterpart,
Abdullah Gul, to visit Yerevan and watch a football match in September.