Interfax, Russia
Oct 22 2009

Turkey will fight for liberation of Azerbaijan’s occupied territories
– minister

BAKU Oct 22

Ankara will fight for the returning to Azerbaijan of its occupied
territories, said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"Within a short period of time Turkey managed to break the deadlock in
the negotiating process. The Azeri lands are also ours, so we will
fight for them until the end," Davutoglu told Azeri journalists on
Thursday.

"We openly declare to the Azeri public that Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity is just as dear to us as Turkey’s. We will never cause any
harm to it," said Davutoglu, commenting on the allegations that the
stabilization of the Armenian-Turkish relations will hurt the Karabakh
settlement process.

Thanks to Turkey’s efforts, there were five meetings between the Azeri
and Armenian presidents over a five-month period, he said. "During
that time Turkey achieved much more than anybody else did throughout
all these years. All this is thanks to the platform of stability and
development in the Caucasus proposed by Turkey. Karabakh was the first
question we raised at our meeting with President Obama. Karabakh was
again the first question at my meeting with U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton held one of these days. Turkey will always raise this
issue no matter what," the minister said.

"The current Turkish government, just like the previous one, will
never change its policy on Karabakh, nothing can do damage to our
unity or change Turkey’s strategy on this issue," said the Turkish
foreign minister.