Unsettled Conflicts in South Caucasus May Bring to Hard Consequences: Turkish Foreign Minister
Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, 28 November /corr. Trend R.Mashedihasanli / The Foreign Minister of Turkey, Ali Babajan, considers that unsettled conflicts in South Caucasus may bring to hard consequences.
"If such serious questions are not resolved via negotiations, severe consequences, to which they can lead, are obvious," Foreign Minister of Turkey, Ali Babajan, who is on visit to Bishkek, told Trend .
"Caucasus is considered as an important and strategically significant region for Turkey. Currently there are serious conflicts in the countries of Caucasus. The Abkhazian, Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh problems still remain unresolved. The continuation of these conflicts for a period of long years further strengthened the differences. Especially, the concerns are presented by the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is the first source of conflicts in Caucasus. We discussed the diplomatic ways of settling the Karabakh problem with the Foreign Minister of Armenia, Nalbandyan," said Babajan.
According to him, insignificant progress is observed in the direction of the solution of this problem between Armenia and Azerbaijan. At the same time, steps are taken on the improvement in the relations between Turkey and Armenia in several debatable questions. These problems are tightly connected with each other. Turkish- Armenian relations depend on the development of Azerbaijan-Armenian relations. "We made a proposal so that the countries of the region - Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia would sit for the negotiating table and would begin to solve the problems. We named this proposal platform "Co-operation and reconciliation of the countries of Caucasus"," the Minister said.
"The representatives of five countries already began to more frequently hold meetings, and joint mechanisms, principles of the solution of problems are searched for. "I hope that the conflicts in Caucasus will find their solution soon. I would like to remember that the Caucasus Platform is not alternative to the OSCE Minsk Group. Turkey is the member of the Minsk Group. However, co-chairmen are the USA, Russia and France. The gradual establishment of the Azerbaijani-Armenian dialogue occurred exactly within the framework of the Minsk Group. Undoubtedly, Turkey also played an important role in this matter," said Babajan.The official visit of the Foreign Minister of Turkey, Ali Babajan, to Kyrgyzstan will complete on 29 November.
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