Armenia should think strategically for peace: Erdoğan
ANKARA
Armenia should think with a long-term and strategic vision for peace through a lasting agreement with Azerbaijan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, urging that the current window of opportunity for a regional stability should not be missed.
Erdoğan hosted Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev on Feb. 19 in the Turkish capital Ankara. The visit comes after Aliyev secured another term as president of Azerbaijan after the recent presidential polls.
“With Azerbaijan’s victory in Karabakh, we believe a historic window of opportunity is opened. It is important that this opportunity is not missed. We, therefore, call on Armenia to think with a long-term and strategic vision for peace,” Erdoğan said at a press conference with Aliyev.
Azerbaijan defeated Armenia in 2020 and liberated its territories in Karabakh from the three-decade long occupation of Armenia. The two countries were in talks for a lasting agreement, but no breakthrough has yet been achieved.
Erdoğan also urged the third countries not to poison the process between Baku and Yerevan and called on them to act constructively for peace and stability in the Caucasus.
On the bilateral front, Erdoğan underlined the improvement in the cooperation between the two nations in almost all fields, including trade, transportation and energy. “We have made clear that we remain committed to our common objective to increase our trade volume to $15 billion,” Erdoğan said, informing that the current volume is around half of that.
Accelerating efforts for the construction of the Iğdır-Nakhchivan railway and renewing the existing Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway are very important for strengthening the links between the two countries, the president said, adding, “Increasing the volume of the TANAP and transporting the Caspian natural gas to Europe via Türkiye are among priorities.”
Aliyev, for his part, hailed the development Türkiye has been displaying in the past years under the leadership of Erdoğan. “Today, Türkiye has influence in the whole world, beyond its region. Türkiye is the guarantor of peace, stability and cooperation in our region,” he stated.
Aliyev added that an extraordinary summit of the Organization of the Turkic States will be held in Shusha in July and the president of Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar will also be invited.
