FRANCE SEPARATES TURKISH-ARMENIAN RELATIONS AND UPPER KARABAKH DISPUTE

Anadolu Agency
May 20 2009
Turkey

ANKARA (A.A) – 20.05.2009 – The French Embassy in Ankara separated
Turkish-Armenian relations from the Upper Karabakh dispute.

The French Embassy in Ankara released a statement and said that
normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations and solution of Upper
Karabakh disputes were two separate processes.

"Normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations and the solution of Upper
Karabakh dispute are two separate processes that should be parallel
to each other but should progress on their own," the embassy said.

The statement came after the visit of Bernard Fassier, the French
co-chairman of the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), to Turkey.

Fassier visited Turkey on Monday and met Ertugrul Apakan, the
undersecretary of Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as part of
efforts to find a peaceful solution to Upper Karabakh, a territory
under Armenian occupation.

OSCE is currently acting as a mediator for the peaceful solution of
the Upper Karabakh issue.

The embassy said that France was supporting and encouraging the
rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia, and at the same time it
was determined to work together with the U.S. and Russian co-chairmen
of the Minsk Group to find a fair and sustainable solution to Upper
Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In its statement, the embassy said that any progress to be made in
either normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations or the solution of
Upper Karabakh dispute would be a positive step for the entire region.

The embassy also said that normalization of Turkish-Armenian
relations, particularly regarding the Upper Karabakh dispute, would
have a positive impact on settlement of ongoing conflicts in the
region.