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Turkey to keep border with Armenia closed: Turkish FM
Agence France Presse
April 19, 2004
ANKARA, April 19 -- Turkey reinforced its ties with neighboring
Azerbaijan on Monday when Turkish foreign minister said his country
would not re-open its border with Armenia.
"It is out of the question for now to re-open the Turkish-Armenian
border," Abdullah Gul said, days after visiting Azeri President
Ilham Aliyev.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 to support Baku in
its war against Yerevan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
a mainly Armenian-populated region of Azerbaijan.
The region came under de facto Armenian control after a 1994 ceasefire
ended the conflict which killed some 30,000 people, but it has remained
the source of a long-standing dispute between the two countries.
Azerbaijan had feared that Turkey would re-open its border with Armenia
in a bid to please the European Union, which it is hoping to join.
Aliyev said in a recent interview that relations with Ankara would
suffer if Turkey again opened the border.
While Turkey's foreign minister renewed his support for Azerbaijan
on Monday, he also urged the two countries to find a solution over
Karabakh.
"We cannot let this question go into hibernation," he said.
He said Ankara wants to organize a meeting "in the next few months"
between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia to help find a settlement over
the region.
A Turkish diplomat told AFP that the meeting, the third of its kind
in recent years, could take place on the sidelines of the NATO summit
in Istanbul on June 29.
Improvement of ties between Azerbaijan and Armenia carry significance
for Turkey.
Such a prospect can pave the way for a corresponding thaw in
relations between Ankara and Yerevan, long poisoned over Armenian and
international allegations that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide
against Armenians during World War I.
ba/tk/tm
Turkey-Azerbaijan-Armenia
Agence France Presse
April 19, 2004
ANKARA, April 19 -- Turkey reinforced its ties with neighboring
Azerbaijan on Monday when Turkish foreign minister said his country
would not re-open its border with Armenia.
"It is out of the question for now to re-open the Turkish-Armenian
border," Abdullah Gul said, days after visiting Azeri President
Ilham Aliyev.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 to support Baku in
its war against Yerevan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,
a mainly Armenian-populated region of Azerbaijan.
The region came under de facto Armenian control after a 1994 ceasefire
ended the conflict which killed some 30,000 people, but it has remained
the source of a long-standing dispute between the two countries.
Azerbaijan had feared that Turkey would re-open its border with Armenia
in a bid to please the European Union, which it is hoping to join.
Aliyev said in a recent interview that relations with Ankara would
suffer if Turkey again opened the border.
While Turkey's foreign minister renewed his support for Azerbaijan
on Monday, he also urged the two countries to find a solution over
Karabakh.
"We cannot let this question go into hibernation," he said.
He said Ankara wants to organize a meeting "in the next few months"
between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia to help find a settlement over
the region.
A Turkish diplomat told AFP that the meeting, the third of its kind
in recent years, could take place on the sidelines of the NATO summit
in Istanbul on June 29.
Improvement of ties between Azerbaijan and Armenia carry significance
for Turkey.
Such a prospect can pave the way for a corresponding thaw in
relations between Ankara and Yerevan, long poisoned over Armenian and
international allegations that the Ottoman Empire committed genocide
against Armenians during World War I.
ba/tk/tm
Turkey-Azerbaijan-Armenia