TURKEY TRIES TO CALM AZERIS OVER THAW WITH ARMENIA
Zerin Elci
Reuters
May 4 2009
UK
ANKARA, May 4 (Reuters) – Turkey’s new Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
sought on Monday to ease Azerbaijan’s concerns over efforts by Turkey
and Armenia to restore ties.
Ankara and Yerevan are engaged in talks to end years of hostility. Last
month, they announced a roadmap to re-establish ties, including
reopening a border closed in 1993.
Azerbaijan, Turkey’s Muslim ally and a key supplier of gas, has reacted
angrily to those talks because it fears losing leverage over Armenia
in the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Davutoglu, appointed to the post in a wide cabinet reshuffle on Friday,
met Azeri Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov in Ankara on Monday to
discuss Azeri concerns over the roadmap, a Turkish Foreign Ministry
spokesman said.
"It is not coincidental that the minister is holding his first meeting
with the Azeri deputy minister", the spokesman told Reuters.
"We have not had any disruption in relations with Azerbaijan but you
can expect reciprocal high level contacts to intensify in the coming
period," the spokesman said.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will meet Azeri President Ilham Aliyev
in the Azeri capital Baku on May 13, state-run Anatolian news agency
said. Erdogan will also meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
on May 16, Anatolian said.
Turkey closed its frontier with Armenia in solidarity with Azerbaijan
in its war with Armenian-backed separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku
has said Turkey should make peace with Armenia only after
Nagorno-Karabakh is resolved.
Davutoglu, the architect of NATO member Turkey’s expanded foreign
policy beyond traditional Western-oriented focus, said over the weekend
that Turkey now had a stronger foreign policy vision with regards to
the Middle East and Caucasus.
"We should be trying to turn the zero-problem policy with neighbours
into a policy of maximum interest," he said after taking office on
Saturday from Ali Babacan. (Editing by Jon Hemming)