BAKU BACKS ANKARA ON OPENING OF BORDERS
news.az
May 3 2010
Azerbaijan
Elkhan Polukhov The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has commented on
remarks by the Turkish foreign minister that Ankara is keen to see
all borders open.
‘Azerbaijan is also in favour of opening and unblocking all the borders
in the region,’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said today.
‘However, for Azerbaijan to open its border with Armenia, the
Armenian armed forces must withdraw from the occupied territories and
Azerbaijani displaced persons must return there. This is the basic
condition for Azerbaijan to open borders with Armenia. In addition,
these steps are consistent with resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict over Karabakh and establishing peace and stability in the
region,’ Polukhov said.
On 1 May, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu addressed a
conference at Oxford University on ‘Turkey’s foreign policy in a
changing world’. ‘Of course we want to open our border because we want
full integration with our neighbours,’ Davutoglu said in his keynote
speech. ‘However, it would not be enough to open the Turkish-Armenian
border. We also want the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to be opened so
that regional stability can be restored.’