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Turkish Minister: â€œWe are explaining to Armenians the importance of withdrawing from the occupied territoriesâ€ â€“ EXCLUSIVE

Turkish Minister: â€œWe are explaining to Armenians the importance of withdrawing from the occupied territoriesâ€ â€“ <font color=red>EXCLUSIVE </font>

12 October 2009 10:02 (UTC +04:00)

-Everyone, who concerns the cultural life of Turkey, sees that you take active part in this life. How can you find time for so many events, visits?

-Turkey is a rich country in terms of culture. You can see archeological excavations in all parts of the country. I think our culture was asleep, now we are trying to awake it. Our attempt to awake improves our consciousness to protect our history. Monuments and caves are protected in all parts of Anatolia, I am very pleased with it. For the present we lack financial means to protect our historical monuments. You can often see me visiting various regions of Turkey. I believe that my activity accelerates this work. If Turkeyâ€™s tourism takes the most necessary place in the world, our cultural heritage will have great role in it. Turkey will become an important touristic country, if we protect Rome, Byzantine, Urartu, Muslim and Christian monuments in Turkey. Everything we do in culture is useful for tourism, our friends engaged in tourism have also begun to understand this. At first they did not understand much why I talked about culture, now the persons engaged in tourism come and say they want to establish a museum in Antalya. I see we have begun to produce positive results in the first two years of my activity.

-Your activity on culture is not restricted to Turkey, you do much in TURKSOY. Though Turkic countries have rich cultural heritage, they have much to learn from Turkey concerning tourism. What can you say about it?

-We attach great importance to TURKSOY. As we do not want Turkey to possess everything, we shared the management with other countries. Former Culture Minister of Kazakhstan is Director General of TURKSOY. Azerbaijani Culture Minister is chairman of the Management Board. So, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan share the management. We are deepening our relations with the Kyrgyz, the Turkmen and Uzbeks. Kazan tatars, gagauz have given positive reaction to our projects. We are extending hand to Bosnia. So, we investigate our common cultural heritage, deepen our relations and improve the tourism potential among the countries. The countries in the east of Turkey failed to promote their tourism potential because of their secluded regime. But I believe in usefulness of different kinds of our cooperation.

-You are always saying about your loyalty to the phrase â€œPeace at home, peace in the worldâ€ by the founder of Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Very significant processes are going on in the region and Turkish-Armenian protocol signed in Switzerland is one of the examples. The actions taken by your government are not accepted univocally in Turkey and Azerbaijan. What will you say about that?

-We believe that peace in the region is advantageous for everyone. Turkey is one of the powerful countries of the region. The peace atmosphere in the region is interesting for Azerbaijan and Armenia mostly because peace and stability leads to the economic development, but tensions between the countries forces them to spend their resources to the armament. Azerbaijan is a state of same nation with us. We respect the independence of Azerbaijan, but we donâ€™t see Azerbaijan disintegrated from us. We say â€œOne nation and two statesâ€ in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan too, but we feel it better in Azerbaijan and Turkey. I see warm welcoming in Baku and Azerbaijani minister of culture is also welcomed in Turkey warmly. We are two states with same language, same ethnic roots and same religions. It is impossible for us to do something not paying attention to the Azerbaijanâ€™s sensibility. We want our every action to bring benefits for Azerbaijan. Armenia occupied a part of Azerbaijani lands. We are making Armenia to understand it and to withdraw its forces. Our Prime Minister immediately visited Baku when he saw Azerbaijanâ€™s concern and addressed the Azerbaijani parliament. Prime Minister Erdogan said that we would never make a step forcing Azerbaijan to hesitate. We are keeping our promise. But it needs to realize that there is no solution of problem without discussing it at the negotiation table. The protocol of goodwill signed between Turkey and Armenia will bring benefit to the region, particularly to Azerbaijan. If Armenia wants to overcome poverty, it must to work for normalization of its relations with us and with Azerbaijan. Let everyone not to worry, we will never do anything dissatisfied Azerbaijan.

-You are talking about the protection of Ani ruins and Urartu culture, but Armenia seizes Azerbaijani lands and claims for the territory of Turkey.

- It will not take place. The politicians could prolong term of their government with that, but it is impossible to develop the country with tensions. Armenia needs in bread. How is it logic for them to claim our lands in this situation? The occupation of Karabakh will also be ended. We must discuss it certainly. Turkey is working for that. Our foreign ministry made significant steps to reach this point. Let our Azerbaijani brothers not to concern about that.