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Turkey will host Armenian President Robert Kocharian at a Black Sea Economic
Cooperation (BSEC) meeting to be held June 25 in Istanbul. The decision was
reached in Reykjavik, Iceland at the NATO foreign ministers meeting last week.
Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev will also take part in the meeting and the
presidents are expected to meet to discuss bilateral issues.
According to diplomatic sources close to the file, Turkish Foreign Minister
Ismail Cem’s initiative to start a dialogue between Armenian Foreign Minister
Vartan Oskanian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Vilayat Guliyev, was an
important step towards improving trilateral relations.
The sources claim that this step will now lead to Turkish involvement in the
Minsk Group and that Turkey may become a "de facto" co-chair along
with France, Russia, and the United States — involved under the auspices of The
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Armenia rejects Turkey’s requests
According to Armenian sources, who quoted the Turkish media, it has been
speculated that Turkey made certain requests to Armenia at the summit. The
requests centered on four issues: Turkey asked Armenia to stop campaigning on
the so-called "Armenian Genocide" issue; to make amendments to the
country’s constitutional law regarding Armenia’s claims over Turkish
territories; to withdraw it’s army from the Nagorno-Karabakh area; and to create
a corridor between Azerbaijan and Nahcivan. Armenia has denied that these
requests were made, according to reports from the Armenian media.
First meeting held near Prague
Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Tatoul Markarian, representing President
Kocharian, and Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov, representing
President Aliyev, met in Stirin, just outside Prague, on May 12-15 to discuss
issues related to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The talks
were chaired by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen from Russia, France, and the
United States.
At this first meeting, the sides engaged in "useful discussions."
The personal representatives were to report on these talks to their presidents
and future meetings would be agreed upon accordingly.
What Turkey achieved at the NATO summit was therefore considered significant
because, first, the foreign ministers were able to establish a dialogue at the
NATO summit and, second, the dialogue will continue when the presidents meet in
Istanbul.
What is the Minsk Group?
The current conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan began in 1988, when the
ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh declared their independence from
Azerbaijan, with the intent of uniting with the Republic of Armenia. At the
time, ethnic Armenians made up approximately 65 percent of Nagorno-Karabakh’s
population. This push by the ethnic Karabakh Armenians to withdraw from
Azerbaijan was instigated by Armenia, which has made territorial claims against
Azerbaijan in order to create a Greater Armenia.
The OSCE began its mediation efforts in 1992, and in 1995, at a summit
meeting in Lisbon, 53 out of the 54 OSCE member states endorsed a statement
based on three principles upon which the conflict should be settled.
In 1996, the OSCE appointed three co-chairs for its Minsk Conference peace
efforts — the United States, Russia and France. The three co-chairs then
developed a two-staged peace proposal: The withdrawal of Armenian forces from
all regions of Azerbaijan, except Nagorno-Karabakh, and negotiations on the
final status of Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan.
The working body of the OSCE Minsk Conference is the Minsk Group, which
includes the United States, France, Russia, Poland, Finland, Denmark, Norway,
Italy and Belarus.
Turkey has long claimed that it should take part in the Minsk Group as
co-president if the conflict is to be solved.
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