US STATE DEPARTMENT: "NAGORNO-KARABAKH WILL BE ONE OF THE MAIN DISCUSSION ISSUES DURING TURKISH PRIME MINISTER’S UPCOMING NEGOTIATIONS WITH US OFFICIALS"
APA
Dec 4 2009
Azerbaijan
Washington. Isabel Levine – APA. Nagorno-Karabakh will be one of the
main discussion issues during Turkish Prime Minister Redjep Tayib
Erdogan’s upcoming negotiations with US officials, APA’s Washington
DC correspondent was told at the US State Department.
Prime-Minister Erdogan will visit Washington DC next week. He will
meet with US president Barak Obama and a number of other high-level
US officials on December 7th.
"The Obama Administration will make sure that Nagorno-Karabakh issue
is addressed during the negotiations with Mr. Erdogan" – told in an
interview with APA one of the famous American analysts on Turkey,
Ian Lesser, Expert at Washington DC based German Marshall Fund. He
mentioned that US’s position on Nagorno-Karabakh is clear – Washington
supports the ongoing peaceful process and is participating in it.
According to the expert, US also will be very clear that, Washington
would like to see the other aspects of the rapprochement between
Armenia and Turkey implemented.
"We would probably commit ourselves to put everything we can do to
the international efforts to solve the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh"
– said American analyst.
Mr. Lesser was a member of the US Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff
at the US Department of State, where his portfolio included southern
Europe, Turkey, and the multilateral track of the Middle East peace
process in 1994-1995.
According to analyst, Iran and its nuclear program, Afghanistan and
Turkish-Armenian rapprochement also will be discussed during the
Turkish Prime Minister’s visit to US. Some other issues like PKK,
Cyprus or Missile Defense will be on agenda as well.
"With Iran there is no any certain agreement with on the nuclear
question. Many initiatives were proposed but there are no conclusions
about what Iran’s policy is. There were also some initiatives that
Turkey proposed so clearly Washington would want Turkey to have tough
messages on Iran’s nuclear program".