BABACAN, LAVROV IN TALKS OVER DUBIOUS CAUCASUS PLATFORM
Today’s Zaman
Aug 23 2008
Turkey
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan yesterday spoke with his Russian
counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on the phone to discuss a proposed
cooperation platform for the crisis-hit Caucasus amidst reports that
Turkey will include its estranged neighbor Armenia in regional peace
efforts via Russia.
Babacan conveyed a set of "concrete proposals" to Lavrov during the
conversation, Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin said, without
elaborating. Officials from the Turkish and Russian foreign ministries
will meet next week to work on the proposals. Babacan and Lavrov will
also meet in early September to review progress in the technical talks.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the architect of the proposed
Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform, has said he won
backing from regional countries, including Russia, for the proposed
alliance. But questions remain on how the regional countries will
set aside their differences and embark on a cooperation initiative.
News reports in the Turkish media said Turkey could talk to Armenia,
one of the regional countries that Ankara wants in the Caucasus
platform, via Russia, Armenia’s regional ally, in the initial
stages. Direct talks between Turkish and Armenian diplomats and
foreign ministers are planned for later stages.
It was not clear whether one of the concrete proposals passed on
to Lavrov concerned some form of Russian mediation between Turkey
and Armenia, two neighbors that have had no formal ties for more
than a decade. Turkey severed its diplomatic ties and closed its
border with Armenia in the early 1990s in protest of an Armenian
occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan. Normalization in ties,
says Ankara, depends on Armenian withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh,
Yerevan ending its efforts for worldwide recognition of claims of an
Armenian genocide at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire and formal
recognition by Armenia of the current borders with Turkey.
But despite the obstacles remaining in place for dialogue, Ankara says
the proposed Caucasus platform will include Armenia as well. President
Abdullah Gul reiterated late on Thursday that Armenia was planned
to be included in the proposed Caucasus platform. "They have been
invited to this to help resolve problems. Talks and preparations are
still under way," he noted.
According to plans that are still being worked out in Ankara, the
proposed platform will include Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and
Armenia. Erdogan has so far visited Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan
to discuss the initiative. Armenia said it welcomed Turkey’s plans
to include Yerevan in regional peace efforts.
Gul is still considering whether to accept an invitation from his
Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarksyan, to visit Armenia to watch a World
Cup qualifying game between national soccer teams of the two countries
on Sept. 6. If it takes place, the visit will represent landmark
progress in efforts to normalize ties between the two countries,
but Turkish diplomats are unsure whether Armenia has taken enough
conciliatory steps to deserve such a gesture.
As deliberations continue in Ankara over whether Gul should accept
Sarksyan’s invitation, reports have appeared in the Turkish media that
decision-makers are leaning toward sending a Cabinet minister, instead
of the president, to Armenia. State Minister Murat BaÅ~_esgioglu, who
is responsible for sports, is reportedly a candidate to visit Armenia.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
