Turkey demands liberation of occupied Azerbaijani territories
By Sara Rajabova
Turkish Foreign Minister urged Armenia to withdraw from the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
At a meeting of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Parliament on November 6, Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey wanted Armenia to liberate the occupied Azerbaijani territories, the newspaper Aksam reported.
"Our demand is the liberation of Karabakh. We expect progress on this issue," Davutoglu said, responding to a question from MP Sinan Ogan from Igdir province regarding opening Turkey's borders with Armenia.
According to Davutoglu, only after the liberation of Azerbaijani territory could the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations be discussed.
Turkish minister for EU affairs Egemen Bagis said that the Nagorno-Karabakh problem adversely affected regional cooperation.
Bagis said while Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan were united with tripartite alliance ties, Armenia was isolated from this relationship.
He said that today Azerbaijan and its fast-developing capital, Baku, were able to compete with leading countries and cities around the world.
Bagis said, however, that over the past two years the Armenian population had dropped from four to two million people.
According to Bagis, people in Armenia left the country because of poverty and economic problems, and the main reason for mass migrations was the fact that the Armenian government did not want to solve the existing problems with neighboring countries.
He said Armenia lost much from an economic point of view.
Bagis also said that unfortunately 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory was still under Armenian occupation and about one million Azerbaijanis were still refugees and internally displaced people.
He said Armenia should abandon its policy of occupation.
"Our brothers and sisters in Azerbaijan are still suffering from the Armenian aggression, so Turkey will never establish relations with Armenia," Bagis said.
He said Armenia should make the right decisions that benefit the citizens of this country.
"This means resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, establishing good neighborly relations with Azerbaijan, and establishing good relations with Turkey and Georgia. Only in this case the Armenians will be able to partially participate in regional investment projects that are beneficial to them," Bagis said.
Over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, has been occupied by Armenian armed forces since a lengthy war between the two South Caucasus countries in the early 1990s. The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions calling for an Armenian pullout, but they have not been enforced to date.