Azernews.Az

The Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian presidents are due to hold a trilateral summit in Russia in late January, a senior Turkish diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity, told Turkey’s Today’s Zaman newspaper.
The source said that if a joint declaration is reached at the meeting, this would advance Ankara’s efforts aimed at normalizing the situation in the volatile region.
"Any joint declaration, either verbally or in written form, to be released after the meeting in Russia and which clearly shows that the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides have full consent over the updated version of the Madrid Principles will mark a milestone. It will give a freer hand to Turkey for maintaining faster progress through ongoing efforts for normalization in the South Caucasus," the diplomat said.
Today’s Zaman also said that Ankara, which last year agreed with Yerevan to establish diplomatic relations and reopen the Turkish-Armenian border, overcoming a century of hostility, insists on seeing improvement towards a resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict in parallel with its efforts to normalize relations with Yerevan. Ankara argues that partial normalization in the Caucasus cannot be sustainable as long as parties don’t exert efforts for complete normalization.
Turkey and Armenia do not have diplomatic relations and the border between the two countries has been closed since 1993. Armenia's occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan, Turkey’s ally, and Yerevan’s claims on the 1915 genocide have been obstacles to normal relations between the two countries.
The Madrid document contains the proposals put forward by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on the basic principles of a settlement. The document was presented to the Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives at the OSCE summit in Madrid in November 2007.*