Hürriyet, Turkey
Jan 24 2009
Five Caucasus neighbors to meet and mull regional security
ANKARA – Officials from the foreign ministries of Turkey, Azerbaijan,
Armenia, Russia and Georgia will meet in Istanbul next week for the
second five-party discussion of its kind on the Turkey-led Caucasus
Stability and Cooperation Platform, the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic
Review learned from diplomatic sources.
The first was held in December on the sidelines of the "Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe" meeting in Helsinki.
This format for technical talks between neighbors will be raised to
the level of foreign ministers in the near future, sources close to
the government said.
Turkey will be represented by deputy undersecretary of the Foreign
Ministry Ambassador Ünal Çeviköz and Russia will be represented by
Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov.
No exact date has been scheduled as of yet but diplomats said the
meeting would most likely take place on Monday or Tuesday.
Turkey has moved fast in the wake of the latest Caucasus crisis to
devise a way to bring divided parties around a single table to discuss
the future. The proposal to create a stability pact to address
security concerns in the Caucasus is helping improve Turkish-Armenian
ties amid diplomatic contacts that have commenced between the two
neighbors. Turkish diplomatic sources, however, said the Istanbul
meeting would only focus on the technical parameters of the Caucasus
platform instead of bilateral disputes between the parties involved.
The recent optimistic remarks made by Turkish and Armenian foreign
ministers signal a normalization in ties is no longer a
dream. Armenia’s Edward Nalbandian said last week Yerevan was very
close to normalizing relations with Ankara and Turkey’s Ali Babacan
said in an interview: "I can easily say we have never come this close
to a plan regarding the final normalization of relations with
Armenia."
There has been a flurry of diplomacy in recent months between the two
neighbors, including a landmark trip by Turkish President Abdullah Gül
to Yerevan in September to attend a football match. A Turkish diplomat
told the Daily News that unlike in the past, a meeting between the two
countries’ officials would not come as a surprise as they were already
in touch.
The same diplomat, speaking anonymously, said Turkey had no plans at
the moment to take a major step to better bilateral ties and added
that progress in solving problems on the Armenian-Azerbaijani track
would have positive impacts on the Turkish-Armenian dialogue and vice
versa. "The progress in Turkish-Armenian or Armenian-Azerbaijani
relations will undoubtedly have spillover effects," he noted.