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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan: â€œAzerbaijan cannot be left aside of peace processes in the regionâ€

14 April 2010 09:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Ankara doesnâ€™t think that President Barack Obama will use â€œArmenian genocideâ€ phrase in his traditional address to the US Armenian community on April 24. â€œWe want the third countries not to cause rows between Turkey and Armenia and not to adopt resolutions. I told Obama what I am telling every time. I have a character â€“ I donâ€™t say one thing before the doors and another one behind the doorsâ€, said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington, APA reports. He said he didnâ€™t think that Obama will do that.

Erdogan said they discussed next phase of the relations between the two countries at the meeting with Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan. He reminded about the meetings between the foreign ministers of both countries, as well as US Secretary of State and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Erdogan noted that the purpose of Zurich protocols was described clearly. â€œIt purposes to establish peace in the region. How can Azerbaijan be left aside of these processes? Azerbaijan is one of the elements in the regional peace processes. It is necessary to solve the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and to bring the sides to common solution. Why Turkish-Armenian borders were closed in 1993? It was closed because of tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, because of occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia. Now it needs to reach progress in the settlement of the conflict between the sides and to establish peace and stability for the opening the borders. From this view, the OSCE Minsk Group has great responsibility. Today, we discussed this issue with Russian president Medvedev. We discussed the issue with Mr. Sarkozy last week. I consider that the acceleration of the process will bring some resultsâ€.

Erdoagn sad there was no concrete schedule for ratification of the Zurich protocols. â€œWe sent the protocols to the parliament. Armenia also sent the protocols to the parliament passing them through the Constitutional Court. I believe that there will be some positive results to stimulate the process and it will accelerate the parliamentsâ€™ activity toward thisâ€.