Azerbaijani, Turkish FMs mull Karabakh conflict’s settlement
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said he discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’s settlement and the situation in the South Caucasus region in general at a joint briefing with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Baku Dec. 3.
Mammadyarov said 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.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
The 23rd Meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council will take place in Hamburg Dec. 8-9, and Baku was interested in Turkey’s position on many issues, Mammadyarov added.
“In 2017, Azerbaijan will announce its decision to chair the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process intergovernmental organization,” he noted.
“We also discussed economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey, including within the framework of the TANAP gas pipeline project,” Mammadyarov said.
Azerbaijan is certain that its gas will be transported through Turkey to Europe in the near future, he added.
TANAP envisages transportation of gas of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field from the Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey. 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.
Mammadyarov noted that Azerbaijan and Turkey have huge prospects for cooperation in the humanitarian sphere as well.