No Appointment With Kocharian, Erdogan
Turkish Press
Published: 5/18/2005
WARSAW/ANKARA (AA) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
late on Sunday that he had no appointment with Armenian President
Robert Kocharian.
Erdogan, who is currently in Polish capital of Warsaw to attend the
Summit of Council of Europe (COE) Heads of State and Government,
met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who earlier met Kocharian on
the margin of this summit.
Regarding the Upper Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan,
Erdogan said, “we are carefully monitoring steps for resolution of this
problem. We hope that problems would be overcome as soon as possible,
and peace would be settled in our region.” Asked if he would take a
step for resolution of Upper Karabakh dispute by meeting Kocharian,
Erdogan said, “we don’t have a scheduled meeting.” On the other hand,
Aliyev said that two countries (Turkey & Azerbaijan) would continue
to support each other.
Asked if he saw any milder attitude from Armenia for solution of this
dispute, Aliyev said, “this matter has been discussed for years,
and so we have decided not to talk on this matter before we make a
real progress. I hope negotiations will bear positive result, and
our problems will be solved.”
-COE SUMMIT-
Before he flew to Warsaw, Erdogan told reporters that he would make
two presentations on “European unity-European values” and “European
Architecture” at the summit.
Erdogan recalled that Turkey was a member of the COE since it was
established in 1949 and said, “we will discuss proposals to solve
old and new problems our continent is facing and determine strategic
methods that COE will pursue in coming days.” Noting that an action
plan and declaration were expected to be adopted during the summit,
Erdogan said, “these documents will include common solution methods
agreed by the COE member states to solve our continent’s problems.”
“I will also have the opportunity to share our country’s views on
COE and future of Europe with the participating heads of state and
government,” added Erdogan.