Azernews.Az

Turkey-Armenia relations could normalize and be permanent only as a result of a settlement reached to the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, Turkish Anatolian news agency has quoted Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as saying.
Davutoglu emphasized that the status quo in Garabagh settlement has persisted for 17 years.
"We attach great importance to defending Azerbaijani territories," the minister said. "If we don’t try to alter the status quo in the next ten years, the current situation will persist endlessly. Our goal is to change the regional situation by diplomatic means."
Davutoglu said the OSCE Minsk Group brokering the peace process has lately stepped up effort, and meetings between the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents have become more frequent.
"Technical issues have been expedited. We hope that we will also play a role in restoring sustainable and comprehensive peace in the South Caucasus this way," he said.
Davutoglu noted that the Garabagh problem had topped the agenda of the meetings held by Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan with US President Barack Obama. "Turkey sees this situation as an unfair one and wants it to be resolved in the soonest time possible."
Armenia and Azerbaijan waged a war over the mountainous region of Upper Garabagh in the early 1990s which claimed some 30,000 lives. Armenia has been occupying over 20% of Azerbaijan’s territory since then, despite UN resolutions on unconditional pullout of its armed forces and condemnation by a number of other international organizations. One million Azerbaijanis have been displaced as a result of ethnic cleansing.
Davutoglu said the ultimate goal of the protocols that Turkey signed with Armenia in October is to normalize bilateral relations and pursue a policy based on respect for the borders of countries and good neighborliness ties. He said Ankara was looking to take a fresh look at Turkish-Armenian relations while distancing from the historical elemental approach; to counter Armenian claims about the alleged 1915 genocide in the Ottoman Empire; to launch a new era between Turkish and Armenian societies, and to establish a commission of historians to research the World War I developments and resolve the Garabagh conflict as part of these efforts.
The protocols, signed by the Turkish and Armenian governments in Zurich on October 10, seek to forge diplomatic ties and open the sealed border, following decades of hostility caused by the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territory and genocide claims.*