Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmad Davudoglu will discuss Azerbaijan-Turkey and Armenia-Turkey ties with Azerbaijani leadership in Baku, Davudoglu told to Trend News in Damascus.
The Turkish Foreign Minister will visit Baku from Damascus where 36th meeting of the OIC foreign ministers' meeting opened today. The meeting will run three days.
Turkey attaches great importance to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Davudoglu said. The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenian-Turkish ties have been severed since 1993 due to Armenia's claims of an alleged genocide, and the country's occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul visited Yerevan on Sept. 6, 2008 upon the invitation of his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisyan to watch an Armenia-Turkey football match.
Efforts have been made to normalize ties between the two countries ever since. Representatives of various circles of Turkish public say the border with Armenia will re-open about which Azerbaijani public is concerned.
Many international experts argue that opening of Armenia-Turkey border will have a negative impact on economic ties between Turkey and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan supplies gas to Turkey from the Shah Deniz field on Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea. Gas is supplied via Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline. Turkey will receive 6.6 billion cubic meters of gas per year as a part of Shah Deniz I. The two countries also cooperate in supplying oil via BTC.
However, during a visit to Baku on May 12-13, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan excluded possibility of cooperation with Armenia until Azerbaijan's occupied lands are liberated.
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