AssA-Irada, Azerbaijan
October 22, 2008 Wednesday

ARMENIA BACKS SECRET TALKS, TURKISH FM

Armenia is seeking to conduct talks with Turkey secretly, Turkish
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan has said. Babacan told a local TV channel
that Yerevan prefers confidentiality of discussions on fears of
pressure from the quite numerous and powerful Armenian lobby. This
lobby definitely does not care about the misery, economic crisis and
the predicament that Armenia faces, the minister said. He noted that
Turkey, which has been elected an associate member of the United
Nations Security Council, will continue stepping up effort at
resolving outstanding regional problems. In particular, Ankara will
keep working to realize its recent initiative to set up a five-nation
union called the Caucasus Peace and Cooperation Platform, which aims
to bolster stability in the turbulent region. Babacan emphasized that
the Turkish Foreign Ministry had set up two working groups to deal
with its activity within the UN SC, with one of them to operate in
Ankara and the other one in New York.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress