Turkey has practically become a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group mediators on Karabakh, according to a Turkish ruling party official.
Suat Kiniklioglu, the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) deputy chief for foreign relations, made the comments in an interview with Turkish daily Star.
'Today’s situation is quite different. Though slow-moving, there is nevertheless a process of normalizing relations, and it is continuing. We want the process to achieve its purpose, but at the same time we want to see that steps are being taken towards settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict... Normalizing relations is a territorial issue. If Armenian-Turkish relations are normalized, the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will start to move and the South Caucasus will become a corridor of Turkish influence. Armenia says that there was no precondition [in the rapprochement protocols], but even if there is no mention of the Karabakh conflict in the Protocols, the peaceful resolution of territorial conflicts is mentioned,' Kiriklioglu said, adding that the Karabakh conflict had a great impact on the region.
He said that Armenian-Turkish rapprochement indirectly meant the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
'There is active diplomatic traffic. Turkey, without being named, has practically become an OSCE Minsk Group co-chair country. There is no success yet. I cannot say when the conflict will be resolved or what type of outcome there will be, but I hope that relations between Turkey and Armenia will normalize... Should the Protocols fail to be ratified we will not return to the point where we started from, but to a worse place.
'As soon as wee see the “road map” of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, then we will have achieved normalization,' Kiniklioglu said.
He highlighted the importance of a proposal by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to initiate contacts with the Armenian diaspora, adding that he planned to meet representatives of the diaspora in April.
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