Turkey urges solution to Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

BAKU – Anadolu Agency

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım on March 14 called on the international community to exert pressure on Armenia to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“We want all sovereign rights of Azerbaijan to be protected,” Yıldırım told state-owned Azerbaijan Television (AZ TV) in the Azeri capital Baku, where he is on a two-day visit to attend the Sixth Global Baku Forum.

“The U.N. and all other organizations acknowledge that Armenia is wrong. However the necessary sensitivities towards adopting a resolution are absent,” he said.

“Whatever is a threat to Azerbaijan is also a threat to us. The international community and institutions must further pressure Armenia,” Yıldırım added.

Azerbaijan and Armenia remain in dispute over the occupied Karabakh region. Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan in 1991 with Armenian military support and a peace process has yet to be implemented.

Turning to the trade volume between Turkey and Azerbaijan, Yıldırım said the two are “not operating at our full potential.”

“Our presidents set a trade volume target of $5 billion a year. There are steps that need to be taken to realize this. Facilitative steps must be taken regarding transportation and restrictive conditions in trade must be removed. Before everything, formalities must be reduced,” he added.

Speaking about Turkey’s ongoing “Operation Olive Branch” in the northern Syrian district of Afrin, Yıldırım said it was launched to “ensure peace in the region and eliminate terror groups” and vowed that Turkey would “continue its counter-terror efforts against all threats within the framework of international law.”

Separately, Yıldırım held several closed-door meetings with officials including former Serbian President Boris Tadic and former Bosnia Herzegovina Prime Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija at a local hotel in Baku.