GUL HERALDS NEW ERA FOR RESOLUTION OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Today’s Zaman
Nov 6 2008
Turkey

Ilham Aliyev (R) was welcomed by Abdullah Gul in Ankara.

President Abdullah Gul said yesterday that a new era for the resolution
of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has begun, saying that all Caucasian
leaders recently began displaying a will for a resolution of regional
disputes.

Gul’s remarks came at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani
President Ä°lham Aliyev, who arrived in the Turkish capital yesterday
only days after a landmark meeting in Moscow, where he discussed
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with his Armenian counterpart, Serzh
Sarksyan. This is Aliyev’s first visit after being re-elected for a
second term on Oct. 15.

"We have courageously started dealing with problems of the
Caucasus. Caucasian leaders are displaying the will for resolving
these problems on various platforms," Gul said, while also referring
to Turkey’s proposal for a regional platform to discuss and resolve
conflicts in the troubled Caucasus after a brief war between Russia and
Georgia. With the planned Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform,
Ankara aims to bring Turkey, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia
together around the same table.

"Caucasus countries, especially Azerbaijan, are lending support to this
[proposal]. We believe that an environment to be created with dialogue
and mutual understanding will lead to the resolution of problems in
the Caucasus. I can state that a new era concerning the resolution of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has begun," Gul said. Nagorno-Karabakh’s
mostly ethnic Armenian population broke away from Azerbaijan in a
war in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union collapsed. It now runs
its own affairs, with support from Armenia.

After talks outside Moscow with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
on Sunday, Aliyev and Sarksyan agreed to develop confidence-building
measures as they search for a way to resolve the conflict.

Gul voiced support for the Moscow talks and expressed hope that it will
be followed by other steps. Aliyev said he backed Turkey’s proposal
for the regional platform while underlining that he applauded Turkey’s
efforts to bring peace and stability to the region.

The Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, released a written statement
announcing its satisfaction over the outcome of the Moscow talks
between Aliyev and Sarksyan. The ministry said a network of relations
based on cooperation and mutual trust within the framework of Turkey’s
proposal for a regional platform could serve for confidence building
between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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