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Turkeyâ€™s Prime-Minister Erdogan: Azerbaijan is one our closest friends and is our brother,their problem is our problem- INTERVIEW - EXCLUSIVE

Turkeyâ€™s Prime-Minister Erdogan: Azerbaijan is one our closest friends and is our brother,their problem is our problem- <font color=red>INTERVIEW - EXCLUSIVE </font>

08 December 2009 07:36 (UTC +04:00)

- Azerbaijan-Armenian conflict was one of your discussion issues during a meeting with US president Obama. Which of you two raised this problem? What did President Obama ask from you?

- As you know, Turkey just recently started a normalization process with Armenia. We are also one of the member countries of the Minsk Group of the OSCE. Besides that Azerbaijan is one our closest friends and is our brother. Their problem is our problem. Unfortunately nearly 20 years of negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh problem still didnâ€™tâ€™ bring any peace to the region. But today this issue is of the main problems in Turkey-Armenia normalization process. We as Turkey signed the protocols with Armenia and sent the documents to the parliament. But this issue also depends on another question. This question is whether the UN resolutions on this issue will be followed and whether Armenia will leave Azerbaijanâ€™s territories. During my meeting with president Obama I mentioned all of these issues and brought to his attention Turkeyâ€™s position.

- But on the other side the Turkey-Armenia rapprochement protocols are in the parliament. If this issue goes to parliamentâ€™s agenda, what would be the result?

- This agreement was signed in Switzerland, and our step towards Armenia was to send this documentation to our parliament, so we did. And the result depends on what the parliament members think. As politicians our mission is to create an opportunity to ease this decision. And because of that I am saying â€“ the OSCE Minsk group should make its work more active.

- Did you also discuss the NABUCO project? In what context?

- Yes, we touched the energy topic. Both sides explained its hesitations and problems. Both we and US are supporting NABUCO, and Turkey is doing everything what the country could do in order to support this project. We hope that all the problems that are currently on the way of this project â€“ will soon be resolved, and there will be nothing that doesnâ€™t let NABUCO be successive.