Journal of Turkish Weekly
sept 19 2009

Opening Turkey’s Borders With Armenia Without Solution Of
Nagorno-karabakh Conflict Will Bring Serious Blow To Restoration Of
Peace and Stability In South Caucasus: Azerbaijan Parliament’s Speaker

Saturday, 19 September 2009

Azerbaijan, Baku, September 19 / Trend News, J.Babayeva /

Speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan believes that opening Turkey’s
borders with Armenia without solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
will bring a serious blow to the restoration of peace and stability in
the South Caucasus.

"Those who want to disrupt the parallelism in this matter should
understand that opening borders without the liberation of the occupied
territories inflicts a serious blow to the restoration of peace and
stability in the South Caucasus, as well as contradicts the national
interests of Azerbaijan," said the Speaker of the

Azerbaijani Parliament Oktay Asadov at the meeting with Swiss Foreign
Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, to the press service of the Parliament
of Azerbaijan said.

During the negotiations through the mediation of Switzerland, Turkey
and Armenia reached an agreement on beginning "internal political
consultations" regarding signing "Protocol on establishing diplomatic
relations" and "Protocol on development of bilateral relations",
Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

Political consultations will conclude within six weeks and after that,
two protocols will be signed to be presented for approval by the
parliaments of the two countries," said the statement by Foreign
Ministry of Turkey.

There are not diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia, the
borders between them have been closed since 1993.

The delegation of parliamentarians led by Oktay Asadov made an
official visit to Switzerland from 16 to 18 September. The delegation
includes MPs Chingiz Asadullayev, Asim Mollazade, Elton Mammadov, head
of Parliament’s office Safa Mirzayev and other officials.

During the meeting, the Speaker said that the reason for closing
borders between Turkey and Armenia is the Armenian occupation of
Azerbaijani territories.

"The issue has not found its solution for already several
years. Armenia does not recognize international law and resolutions of
the influential international organizations. In its turn, Azerbaijan
does not intend to interfere in the internal affairs of Turkey and
Armenia. But everyone should understand that opening borders and
liberation of territories should be carried out in parallel," Asadov
said at the meeting.

Switzerland attaches great importance to relations with Azerbaijan,
Micheline Calmy-Rey said, adding that serious preparations are
conducted in connection with the visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev to Switzerland, scheduled for October.

Asadov expressed his hope that the relations between the two countries
will continue to grow further, and thanked the Swiss Government for
the recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

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Saturday, 19 September 2009
Trend News Agency