AzerNews Weekly, Azerbaijan
Jan 15 2010

Azeri, Armenian and Russian leaders to meet in weeks – report

15-01-2010 05:20:05

The Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian presidents are due to hold a
trilateral summit in Russia in late January, a senior Turkish diplomat
speaking on condition of anonymity, told Turkey’s Today’s Zaman
newspaper.
The source said that if a joint declaration is reached at the meeting,
this would advance Ankara’s efforts aimed at normalizing the situation
in the volatile region.
`Any joint declaration, either verbally or in written form, to be
released after the meeting in Russia and which clearly shows that the
Armenian and Azerbaijani sides have full consent over the updated
version of the Madrid Principles will mark a milestone. It will give a
freer hand to Turkey for maintaining faster progress through ongoing
efforts for normalization in the South Caucasus,’ the diplomat said.
Today’s Zaman also said that Ankara, which last year agreed with
Yerevan to establish diplomatic relations and reopen the
Turkish-Armenian border, overcoming a century of hostility, insists on
seeing improvement towards a resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan
Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict in parallel with its efforts to
normalize relations with Yerevan. Ankara argues that partial
normalization in the Caucasus cannot be sustainable as long as parties
don’t exert efforts for complete normalization.
Turkey and Armenia do not have diplomatic relations and the border
between the two countries has been closed since 1993. Armenia’s
occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan, Turkey’s ally, and
Yerevan’s claims on the 1915 genocide have been obstacles to normal
relations between the two countries.
The Madrid document contains the proposals put forward by the OSCE
Minsk Group co-chairs on the basic principles of a settlement. The
document was presented to the Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives
at the OSCE summit in Madrid in November 2007.*

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress