TURKISH PM HOPES HIS VISIT TO AZERBAIJAN TO ELIMINATE MISUNDERSTANDING
Xinhua General News Service
May 12, 2009 Tuesday 10:41 PM EST
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday expressed hope
that his visit to Azerbaijan would eliminate the misunderstandings
which were recently high on the agenda of public, the semi-official
Anatolia news agency reported.
Erdogan made the remarks in Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul prior
to his departure for Azerbaijan, saying that he would meet with
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and they would discuss bilateral
relations and regional developments.
Erdogan said he would address Azerbaijani Parliament and clearly
convey Turkey’s world and regional policies.
Erdogan said that there had been many negative news on press organs
recently about Turkey-Azerbaijan relations, adding that Turkey would
continue to defend the interests of Azerbaijan as it had been doing
so far. He added that there were no problems between Turkey and
Azerbaijan.
Erdogan said that they would take up Turkey-Azerbaijan,
Azerbaijan-Armenia and Turkey-Armenia relations as well as Caucasus
stability and cooperation platform during the meetings in Azerbaijan.
In an interview with state-run broadcaster TRT on Saturday, Erdogan
said that Turkey would open its border with Armenia if Yerevan stopped
its occupation of Upper Karabakh, adding that it was the precondition
to open the border gate with Armenia.
Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan reached an agreement
Thursday over "basic concepts of peace" in the dispute, mediators of
the Prague meeting said.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan
during its conflict with Armenia over the Upper Karabakh region.