TURKEY, AZERBAIJAN DISCUSS ‘NEW ERA’ FOR CAUCASUS

Agence France Presse
November 5, 2008 Wednesday

The leaders of Turkey and Azerbaijan revived efforts Wednesday to
resolve entangled conflicts in the volatile Caucasus region also
involving Armenia.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul hailed Azeri-Armenian talks in Russia
last week as "the beginning of a new era", boosting hopes of securing
peace and stability in the region.

"Turkey supports this process and hopes that it will continue," Gul
said after talks with Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev. "We have begun
to handle the problems in the Caucasus together and with courage."

Hosted by Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev, Aliyev and Armenian President
Serzh Sarkisian met near Moscow Sunday and signed a joint declaration
asserting their desire to find a political settlement to the Nagorny
Karabakh conflict.

An enclave of Azerbaijan with a largely ethnic Armenian population,
Nagorny Karabakh broke free of Baku’s control in the early 1990s in
a war that killed nearly 30,000 people and forced two million to flee
their homes.

A ceasefire was signed in 1994 but the dispute remains unresolved.

Aliyev voiced hope the talks with Armenia would result in a settlement
"through gradual ways" and thanked Turkey for its peace efforts in
the Caucasus, which Ankara wants to crown with a regional cooperation
pact, involving also Georgia and Russia.

Turkey is eager for progress on the Nagorny Karabakh conflict in the
hope of advancing its own reconciliation bid with Armenia, its eastern
neighbour with which it has refused to establish diplomatic ties.

In a show of support for Azerbaijan, a close ally with which it
shares ethnic roots, Turkey shut its border with Armenia in 1993,
dealing a heavy economic blow to the impoverished ex-Soviet nation.

Turkish-Armenian ties have been further poisoned by Yerevan’s
international campaign for the recognition of the mass killings of
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people were systematically
killed by Ottoman Turks in an act of genocide between 1915 and 1917
as their empire fell apart — a claim supported by several other
countries.

Turkey rejects the genocide label, arguing that 300,000-500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops.

Gul became the first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia when he
travelled to Yerevan in September to watch a World Cup qualifying
football match between the two countries on the invitation of
Sarkisian.

Turkish officials have said the reconciliation process with Armenia
would be advanced mostly through "silent" diplomacy.