Azernews.Az

The mediating efforts of Russia and U.S. to resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh have not yielded any result so far, therefore, Turkey hopes that France, the other OSCE Minsk Group co-chair brokering the peace process, will step up its role in the resolution of the conflict, a senior Turkish official reportedly said.

``Instead of discussing the so-called `Armenian genocide` France should take up the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and think about the fate of Azerbaijani refugees who were left without shelter as a result of the Armenian aggression,`` Egemen Bagis, Turkey`s Minister for EU Affairs, said in an interview with French daily La Croix, the Turkish Internethavadis website reported.

The Nagorno Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia leveled territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The two countries fought a lengthy war that displaced about one million Azerbaijanis. Since a fragile ceasefire accord signed in 1994, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan`s internationally recognized territory, in defiance of international calls and UN resolutions.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council`s four resolutions on its pullout from Nagorno Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

Bagis said further that Turkey does not abandon its history and has once again urged Armenia to establish a joint commission of historians to research the 1915 events in Ottoman Turkey, which Armenians claim amounted to ``genocide``.

``Turkey has repeatedly called on Armenia to open up archives and to begin historical research. We agree to France`s participation in these studies,`` Bagis said.

According to historians, from 1915 to 1923, Armenians began an uprising. They took up arms against Turkey and assisted Russia, one of Turkey`s enemies in WWI. To counter these actions, the Ottoman Empire decided to resettle the Armenians. However, the Armenians claim that their predecessors were subjected to genocide in the process -- a charge Ankara rejects -- and have been trying to muster international support for the recognition of the alleged genocide worldwide.