TURKISH PM ASSURES AZERBAIJAN OF ‘UNITED’ STAND ON ARMENIA
Agence France Presse
April 19, 2010 Monday 6:43 PM GMT
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday reassured
Azerbaijan that Ankara remained "united" with Baku and would uphold
Azerbaijani interests during its reconciliation efforts with Armenia.
On a brief visit to the Azerbaijani capital Baku, Erdogan said he had
provided Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with details of a meeting
with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian last week in Washington.
"I came to Baku in order to inform the leadership of Azerbaijan on the
meeting in Washington. Azerbaijan and Turkey share a united position
on the issues in question," Erdogan told journalists in comments
shown on ANS television.
Turkey has been keen to assure Azerbaijan, its ally and strategic
energy partner, that it will not ignore Baku’s conflict with Armenia
over the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region during the reconciliation
efforts.
Azerbaijan has warned Turkey that agreeing to reopen its border
with Armenia without progress in the Karabakh dispute could threaten
energy ties.
The reopening of the Turkish-Armenian border is part of a landmark
accord the two neighbours signed in October to establish diplomatic
ties and end decades of hostility over Ottoman massacres of Armenians
during World War I.
But the deal, which needs parliamentary ratification in both countries
to take effect, has since faltered amid mutual accusations that the
other side is not committed to reconciliation.
Turkey sealed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity
with Azerbaijan after ethnic Armenian separatists, backed by Yerevan,
seized the Nagorny Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts
from Baku in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.
Armenia has slammed Turkey’s position as a "precondition," rejecting
any link between the October deal and Nagorny Karabakh.
Turkey and Armenia have also been estranged over Yerevan’s allegations
that up to 1.5 million Armenians were the victims of genocide at the
hands of their Ottoman rulers in 1915-1917, a label Ankara fiercely
rejects.