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Ahmet Davutoglu: â€œTurkey is fully coordinating its policies with Azerbaijanâ€

26 April 2010 15:09 (UTC +04:00)

Turkey sees this issue as our own problem and we are trying to keep this issue on agenda everywhere. Turkey is fully coordinating its policies with Azerbaijan and nobody can deal a blow to Turkish-Azerbaijani friendship. Everyone should know it very wellâ€, said Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu in his address to the Turkish parliament on April 26. â€œTurkeyâ€™s relationship with Armenia will normalize in the same way as with other countries. We want to realize it. In parallel, Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict will find its solution by ending the occupation of Azerbaijani lands. The Armenia-Azerbaijan border will also open just as the Turkey-Armenia border opensâ€¦ That is our perspective of peace. It means that there will be a corridor from Erzrum to Central Asiaâ€.

The minister said Turkey has the right to take "necessary precautions" if the protocols were interpreted against their spirit. He said the parliaments would ratify the protocols while relevant political situation was created. Davutoglu said dynamics were created on the eve of 24 April as it was every year and Turkey showed necessary reaction to that. â€œMr. Sargsyan recently announced that he had frozen the process concerning the ratification of the protocols with Turkey but made it clear that he had not permanently suspended the normalization process. For his part, the parliaments will ratify the protocols once political conditions were ripeâ€.

Davutoglu said Turkey was not an ordinary country and Ankara was taking deep interest in the developments in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. â€œWe donâ€™t want status quo to continue in the Caucasus because it is not in favor of fraternal Azerbaijan, Armenia or Georgia and Russia and Iran as well. But there were not brave actions to change this status quo. Our purpose is to change this status quo in right direction. The stone has already moved from the place and it should be set in its place that it can bring peace and stability to the Caucasus. This is our purposeâ€.