BAKU ADMITS TURKEY UNLIKELY TO MEDIATE ON KARABAKH
news.az
May 3 2010
Azerbaijan
Elkhan Polukhov The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has acknowledged that
Turkey is unlikely to become one of the OSCE Minsk Group mediators
on the Karabakh conflict.
‘The agreement of both sides of the conflict, i.e. Azerbaijan and
Armenia, is needed to change the format of the Minsk Group. In this
case Armenia is against the inclusion of Turkey in the format, as it
has repeatedly said,’ Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan
Polukhov told 1news.az on Saturday.
He was commenting on remarks by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman
Andrey Nesterenko that Moscow had not received a proposal to include
Turkey as an OSCE Minsk Group co-chair.
‘Anyway, the agreement of all parties is needed in order to make this
proposal reality. Considering that the ratification of the protocols
on the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations has been suspended,
such an agreement is unlikely,’ Nesterenko said.
Azerbaijan has recently criticized the work of the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairs who are from Russia, the USA and France. The idea of Turkey
becoming a co-chair of the mediating group has been mooted by officials
in Turkey and Azerbaijan.