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ANKARA: Diplomacy In Caucasus To Speed Up, FM

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  • ANKARA: Diplomacy In Caucasus To Speed Up, FM

    DIPLOMACY IN CAUCASUS TO SPEED UP, FM

    Hurriyet
    Nov 13 2008
    Turkey

    ANKARA - Foreign Minister Ali Babacan says the upcoming days will see
    intense diplomatic contacts in the Caucasus and announces his Armenian
    counterpart will soon visit Turkey. The visit will be a follow-up to
    the landmark meeting of the two countries' presidents

    Armenia's foreign minister, Edward Nalbandian, is expected to visit
    Turkey some time soon, his Turkish counterpart, Ali Babacan, said
    yesterday.

    The visit will be a follow-up to the landmark meeting of the two
    countries' presidents in September.

    He said the upcoming days would see intense diplomatic contacts in
    the Caucasus, adding that he would visit Azerbaijan but noted that
    the exact time of the visits was not certain.

    Turkey presented a proposal to establish a Caucasus platform in the
    wake of the Georgia-Russia war last summer. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan
    are backing the Turkish initiative for stability in the region. The
    platform will give Yerevan and Baku an opportunity to iron out their
    differences over the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    Babacan voiced support for Russia's role in improving ties between
    Armenia and Azerbaijan. "The Russian role is important. Russia
    will make important contributions to the normalization of
    Azerbaijani-Armenian relations," he told a joint press conference
    with his visiting Algerian counterpart.

    Hosted by Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev, the presidents of Azerbaijan
    and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Serge Sarkisian met near Moscow recently
    and signed a joint declaration asserting their desire for a political
    settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

    Babacan also commented on a bilateral meeting between Sarkisian and
    Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who paid a landmark visit to Yerevan
    in September to watch a football match between the Turkish-Armenian
    national teams. He said the Armenian president did not need to wait
    for another football occasion to visit Turkey and added he expected
    the meeting between Sarkisian and Gul would take place in a short
    period of time.

    Asked about a question on a trilateral summit between the foreign
    ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, Babacan said the three-way
    talks occurred on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings
    in New York and that all the sides were in agreement to press ahead
    with three-way talks.
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