Turkish FM brings regional issues to table in Baku
By Gunay Hasanova
Unsettled Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as development of regional transportation routes prospects of bilateral cooperation, increase of trade turnover, and the regional and international issues of mutual interest were top on agenda during the visit of Turkey's top diplomat to Baku last week.
In the course of top level meetings held in Baku Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reiterated Turkey's firm position backing the peaceful resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the territorial integrity, sovereignty and internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received Cavusoglu on December 3 to discuss the issues of mutual concern.
At first, Cavusoglu conveyed greetings of President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the head of state.
In turn, President Ilham Aliyev wishing good health to the President of Turkey, said: “You know that we have a very close relationship with esteemed President. We are bound by ties of friendship and brotherhood.”
Following the meeting with President Aliyev, Cavusoglu held a tete-a-tete meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov.
Further, the two ministers continued the discussions with the participation of delegations.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said he discussed the solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the situation in the South Caucasus region in general at a joint briefing with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Moreover, Mammadyarov stressed that Cavusoglu discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement also at the meeting with his Russian colleague Sergey Lavrov in Turkey’s city of Alanya in early December 2016.
Cavusoglu stressed that the conflict must be resolved through negotiations based on the relevant UN Security Council resolutions which demand the withdrawal of Armenian forces from all occupied territories of Azerbaijan and within the territorial integrity, sovereignty and internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan.
Armenia keeps under occupation 20 percent of internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts for over two decades years. Armenia ignores UN Security Council's four resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied lands, thus keeping tension high in the region.
In turn, Mammadyarov said that the 23rd Meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council will take place in Hamburg on December 8-9, and Baku was interested in Turkey’s position on many issues.
“In 2017, Azerbaijan will announce its decision to chair the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process intergovernmental organization,” Mammadyarov noted.
At the meeting, the sides expressed their satisfaction with the development of fraternal and allied relations at the strategic level between the two countries.
In turn, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov once again strongly condemned an attempt of coup perpetrated in Turkey and reiterated that the People and the State of Azerbaijan stand as always by the people and the state of Turkey.
Cavusoglu underlined that they highly appreciate brotherly Azerbaijan’s solidarity with Turkey and thanked the people and government of Azerbaijan.
“I am pleased to once again be on a visit to Azerbaijan, which is also our homeland," he said. "My last visit to Azerbaijan was after the coup attempt in Turkey, and I express my gratitude to the leadership and people of Azerbaijan for the support to Turkey in those difficult days.”
He added that our cooperation is getting further strengthened and improved by the projects like Baku-Tbilisi-Kars and TANAP.
Elmar Mammadyarov also expressed confidence that Azerbaijan is certain that its gas will be transported through Turkey to Europe in the near future.
The ministers stressed that the successful cooperation in bilateral and multilateral format contributes to the regional development. In this sense, they added that as an important segment of the East-West transportation corridor the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line will be operational very soon. They also spoke about the continuing construction of the TANAP project
TANAP envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field to the western borders of Turkey passing via the Georgian-Turkish border. Turkey will get gas in 2018 and after completing the construction of Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), gas will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.
It was mentioned that our countries continue the mutual support and joint efforts in the framework of international and regional organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Economic Cooperation Organization, the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization and others.
They highlighted the importance of developing bilateral cooperation between our countries in trilateral Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey, Azerbaijan-Iran-Turkey, Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan-Turkey formats. They reviewed the ways of further expansion of this format.
Furthermore, Cavusoglu informed that the meeting of energy ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Turkmenistan is planned for early 2017.
He added that Azerbaijan and Turkey have common goals in the region and the two countries intend to act together, and support each other.
According to the State Customs Committee, trade turnover between the two countries amounts to $1.476 billion.
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Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova
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