Stability in S.Caucasus important for Turkey, regional countries

/By Azernews/

By Nazrin Gadimova

The stability in South Caucasus region is important not only for Turkey, but also for other countries.

Tugay Tuncer, Deputy Chief of Turkey's mission to the U.S., made the remark as part of an event titled ‘Syria and the South Caucasus: Emerging Threats to Turkish and NATO Security’, held in Washington D.C. on April 14.

Turkey is greatly concerned over the recent large-scale attacks and ceasefire violations by Armenia towards neighboring Azerbaijan along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as in Nakhchivan, which caused military and civilian casualties, he stressed.

Tuncer believes that the OSCE Minsk Group, which has been the sole negotiator in the long lasting Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict since 1994, had many unsuccessful attempts at finding the solution to the conflict.

"We expect the international community, especially the Minsk Group Co-chairs to take responsibility and urge Armenia to put an end to armed provocations," the Turkish diplomat said, adding that the current status quo is unacceptable anymore.

Turkey is fully committed to continue developing good relations based on mutual respect with all countries in the South Caucasus, Tuncer further noted.

He said Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey have many big projects like Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project, TANAP gas pipeline project.

Tuncer believes that Armenia misses opportunities for cooperation in this region, but Turkey hopes that the country will see the benefits of this cooperation sooner or later.

Armenia’s aggressive policy has resulted in its isolation from region’s important countries: Turkey has closed its border after Armenia occupied Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territories, while Azerbaijan responded with the same actions after Yerevan's naked aggression.

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.

The OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, proceeding talks based on the renewed Madrid principles. The statements promising a sincere contribution to the peaceful resolution of the conflict have become frequent, but declarative in essence.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.