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US State Department: â€œNagorno-Karabakh will be one of the main discussion issues during Turkish Prime Ministerâ€™s upcoming negotiations with US officialsâ€

04 December 2009 10:11 (UTC +04:00)

Prime-Minister Erdogan will visit Washington DC next week. He will meet with US president Barak Obama and a number of other high-level US officials on December 7th.

â€œThe Obama Administration will make sure that Nagorno-Karabakh issue is addressed during the negotiations with Mr. Erdoganâ€ â€“ told in an interview with APA one of the famous American analysts on Turkey, Ian Lesser, Expert at Washington DC based German Marshall Fund. He mentioned that USâ€™s position on Nagorno-Karabakh is clear â€“ Washington supports the ongoing peaceful process and is participating in it.

According to the expert, US also will be very clear that, Washington would like to see the other aspects of the rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey implemented.

â€œWe would probably commit ourselves to put everything we can do to the international efforts to solve the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakhâ€ â€“ said American analyst.

Mr. Lesser was a member of the US Secretaryâ€™s Policy Planning Staff at the US Department of State, where his portfolio included southern Europe, Turkey, and the multilateral track of the Middle East peace process in 1994-1995.

According to analyst, Iran and its nuclear program, Afghanistan and Turkish-Armenian rapprochement also will be discussed during the Turkish Prime Ministerâ€™s visit to US. Some other issues like PKK, Cyprus or Missile Defense will be on agenda as well.

â€œWith Iran there is no any certain agreement with on the nuclear question. Many initiatives were proposed but there are no conclusions about what Iranâ€™s policy is. There were also some initiatives that Turkey proposed so clearly Washington would want Turkey to have tough messages on Iranâ€™s nuclear programâ€.