TURKEY KEEN TO SEE KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
news.az
March 9 2011
Azerbaijan
Turkey's ambassador to the USA, Namik Tan, has said that the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Karabakh needs to be resolved as
soon as possible.
He made the comments after giving a lecture on "Turkey in Europe,
the Middle East and Beyond", at Johns Hopkins University's School of
International Studies on 7 March.
Asked about Turkey's role in brokering a lasting peace between Armenia
and Azerbaijan, Namik Tan said that Ankara supported the mediation
efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group.
"We support strongly the efforts of Minsk Group. I think this is,
of course, the first statement that I should make. The second is,
of course, we have a very peculiar situation down there, in terms of
Azerbaijani land, around 20 percent of the Azerbaijani lands are under
occupation. This is really, I think, unacceptable. I think it is part
of this whole - is the main reason, probably - of this problem."
"As recently as last week, one of our deputy under secretaries visited
Washington and he had talks also on this issue, not only on this issue,
but one of them," the envoy said.
"We are exchanging views with other parties and we hope, I think,
as early as possible - this adds a lot to the overall instability in
the region; this really ties all efforts of the regional countries to
bring more prosperity and better life to their people in the region -
we need to put it behind [us] as early as possible."
In response to a follow-up question about Armenian-Turkish relations,
the envoy said: "For something to happen, as you know, it takes two to
tango, they say. This is a part of the previous question and relates
to your question - if we can find some sort of an acceptable solution
to this Karabakh conflict and to Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict or
disagreement, then I believe it will be much more easier for us to
take some more steps on our efforts to find a sort of a ultimate
solution to our problems with our Armenian friends."
From: A. Papazian
news.az
March 9 2011
Azerbaijan
Turkey's ambassador to the USA, Namik Tan, has said that the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Karabakh needs to be resolved as
soon as possible.
He made the comments after giving a lecture on "Turkey in Europe,
the Middle East and Beyond", at Johns Hopkins University's School of
International Studies on 7 March.
Asked about Turkey's role in brokering a lasting peace between Armenia
and Azerbaijan, Namik Tan said that Ankara supported the mediation
efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group.
"We support strongly the efforts of Minsk Group. I think this is,
of course, the first statement that I should make. The second is,
of course, we have a very peculiar situation down there, in terms of
Azerbaijani land, around 20 percent of the Azerbaijani lands are under
occupation. This is really, I think, unacceptable. I think it is part
of this whole - is the main reason, probably - of this problem."
"As recently as last week, one of our deputy under secretaries visited
Washington and he had talks also on this issue, not only on this issue,
but one of them," the envoy said.
"We are exchanging views with other parties and we hope, I think,
as early as possible - this adds a lot to the overall instability in
the region; this really ties all efforts of the regional countries to
bring more prosperity and better life to their people in the region -
we need to put it behind [us] as early as possible."
In response to a follow-up question about Armenian-Turkish relations,
the envoy said: "For something to happen, as you know, it takes two to
tango, they say. This is a part of the previous question and relates
to your question - if we can find some sort of an acceptable solution
to this Karabakh conflict and to Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict or
disagreement, then I believe it will be much more easier for us to
take some more steps on our efforts to find a sort of a ultimate
solution to our problems with our Armenian friends."
From: A. Papazian