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Abdullah Gul: Armenia must withdraw from the occupied territories

23 December 2010 17:15 (UTC +04:00)

Turkey will never give up demonstrating goodwill in order to achieve peace and stability in the South Caucasus. Trying to normalize our relations with Armenia, we wish the normalization of the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. But the first condition is the liberation of Azerbaijani territories from occupationâ€, Turkish President Abdulla Gul said answering APAâ€™s Turkey correspondentâ€™s question at the press conference after 11th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization in Istanbul. He said that Azerbaijani territories must be liberated in order to pave the way for the peace process in the region.
â€œIt is not easy to solve the conflicts that have become chronic. I openly say that, the present de-facto situation does not favor anyone, neither does Armenia. We will do our best to solve this problem. The solution of such conflicts requires patience. And we will continue working with patience. There are points that we publicize and do not publicize. The first condition of the peace in the region is Armeniaâ€™s withdrawal from the occupied territories.â€

Gul said that Azerbaijan applied for the membership of ECO Development Bank. The next Summit of ECO will be held in Baku next year.