MORE TALKS PLANNED WITH AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA

Today’s Zaman
Nov 27 2008
Turkey

Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan are scheduled to intensify diplomatic
contacts, boosting prospects for reconciliation in the troubled
Caucasus.

The Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that Foreign Minister Ali
Babacan will travel to Azerbaijan this weekend. Today’s Zaman has
also learned that Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, who
visited Ä°stanbul this week to attend a ministerial gathering of the
Black Sea countries, is planning to invite Babacan to Yerevan for
the next meeting of the regional group.

Nalbandian was in Ä°stanbul on Monday for attending a meeting of the
Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), a regional
cooperative organization with Armenia currently holding the rotating
presidency. While in Ä°stanbul, Nalbandian met with Babacan.

Nalbandian told Today’s Zaman that he planned to invite Babacan "at
the earliest opportunity" to a foreign ministers’ meeting of the BSEC
which will be hosted in Yerevan on Apr. 29, 2009.

Turkish diplomatic sources declined to comment on Ankara’s possible
response, noting that they haven’t received an official invitation
yet. The eventual decision will be made in reference to "the course
of affairs" in the ongoing negotiations with Armenia, the same sources
told Today’s Zaman.

Ahead of the foreign ministers’ meeting, Yerevan will host working
meetings for BSEC energy ministers on March 13, for BSEC transportation
ministers on March 27, for BSEC agricultural ministers in first week
of April, and for environment ministers on Apr. 10. Stressing the
importance attached to the BSEC by Ankara, diplomatic sources haven’t
excluded the idea of Turkey’s participation in these meetings.

Turkey severed its diplomatic ties with Armenia and closed its border
in 1993 in protest against the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh
in Azerbaijan. Ankara says the normalization of relations depends on
Armenia’s withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh and an end to Yerevan’s
support for the Armenian diaspora’s efforts to win international
recognition for claims that Armenians were subjected to genocide at
the hands of the Ottoman Empire. But a visit by President Abdullah Gul
in early September to Yerevan to watch a World Cup qualifying match
between Turkey and Armenia’s national teams broke the ice between
the two countries. Officials have been holding talks on the possible
normalization of relations since that historic visit.

In September, on the sidelines of a UN General Assembly meeting in
New York, Babacan and Nalbandian had three-way talks with Azerbaijani
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh
dispute.

The Foreign Ministry yesterday announced that Babacan will travel to
Baku on Sunday for a two-day official visit at the invitation of his
Azerbaijani counterpart.

In addition to bilateral and regional affairs, the two ministers will
also discuss Ankara’s proposal for a Caucasus Stability and Cooperation
Platform to promote dialogue between the countries of that region,
the ministry said in a brief statement.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) in Helsinki in early December is expected to offer an
opportunity for a new trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers
of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, although no formal decision on
such a meeting has been made yet.

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