Turkey not to open Armenia border before Karabakh occupation ends-PM

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

Erdogan held a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku, during a visit aimed at reassuring Azeri leaders that Turkey's efforts to reconcile with Armenia would not undermine the country's interests.        

"The current situation in Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be accepted and will never be accepted. The closure of the border is a result of the occupation in Karabakh," Erdogan told reporters.

"I want to repeat once more that until the occupation ends, the border gates (with Armenia) will remain closed," he added.

Erdogan also urged the so-called Minsk group, set up in 1992 and co-chaired by Russia, the United States and France, to speed up efforts to find a solution to Nagorno-Karabakh.

, which has been mediating between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, is reportedly pushing for a summit between Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in June aimed at moving to formally end the conflict.Russia

After his visit to Baku, Erdogan is due to fly to Russia where he will meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi Saturday.

Turkey wants to boost Azeri imports for domestic consumption and eventually resell the gas to Europe via the planned Nabucco pipeline.

Turkey buys 6 billion cubic meters gas from Azerbaijan's Shakh Deniz basin each year at $120 per 1,000 cubic meters, which is about half of what it pays for Russian and Iranian gas.

"I cannot defend that price as fair. It is not fair. Our energy minister will meet Socar officials today, and I hope the price will come to a more just point," Erdogan said, without giving further details.

The new price, which Erdogan said would be more "fair" than the discount at which Ankara buys gas from Azeri state oil company Socar, may affect ongoing talks to boost the volume of Azeri gas to Turkey.

GAS PRICE CHANGE
Erdogan also told the conference that officials from Turkey and Azerbaijan would discuss changing the price at which Ankara purchases Azeri natural gas.

The Turkish prime minister, accompanied by several ministers, including Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, visited Azerbaijan's former President Heydar Aliyev's grave at the Honor's cemetery earlier on Wednesday.

The Turkish prime minister also addressed the Azerbaijani Parliament. "Ankara will take no steps as long as we do not agree with our Azeri brothers," he told Azeri lawmakers.

The Ankara-Yerevan thaw has reportedly disturbed Azerbaijan, which says opening the border before the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the country’s occupied territories would run counter to its national interests. Some media reports have suggested that Azerbaijan, a supplier of oil and gas to Europe, might even halt the sale of natural gas to Turkey.

Turkey and Armenia, however, agreed last month on a "road map" deal for U.S.-backed talks that could lead to the normalizing of ties and the opening of their border.

cut diplomatic links with Yerevan and closed the border in a show of support to Azerbaijan in 1993 after 20 percent of its territory was invaded by Armenia in the disputed region -- a frozen conflict legacy of the Soviet Union known as Nagorno-Karabakh. Ankara