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Protocol with Armenia is negative for Turkey: former PM

Türkiye Materials 21 October 2009 18:16 (UTC +04:00)
Signing of the Turkey-Armenia protocols is not in favor of Turkey, Turkish ex-prime minister, MP Mahsul Yilmaz said, TRT 3 TV channel reported.
Protocol with Armenia is negative for Turkey: former PM

Signing of the Turkey-Armenia protocols is not in favor of Turkey, Turkish ex-prime minister, MP Mahsul Yilmaz said, TRT 3 TV channel reported.

"Signing of the Turkey-Armenia protocols is detrimental to the Turkish national principles," Yilmaz said.

On Oct. 21, the Turkish parliament launched discussions on the Armenian-Turkish protocol.

During the speech by the MP from the ruling Justice and Development Party of Turkey Omer Chelik, MPs from the opposition left the meeting hall of Parliament as protest.

Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers Ahmet Davutoglu and Edward Nalbandian signed the protocols Ankara-Yerevan in Zurich on October 10. 

Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey have been broken due to Armenia's claims of an alleged genocide, and its occupation of Azerbaijani lands. The border between them has been broken since 1993.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7 districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.

Earlier, representatives of the Turkish government claimed that opening of the Turkish-Armenian border cannot be topic of discussion, until Armenia withdraw its troops from the occupied Azerbaijani lands.

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