ANKARA (Anatolia News Agency) - Although Turkey has made great strides in eliminating problems with its neighbors, outstanding issues remain with Armenia, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday.
"It is obvious that the refusal of the friendly hand offered by Turkey will mostly damage Armenia itself," Davutoglu said in a written statement responding to a parliamentary question submitted by the opposition Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP.
"The protocols signed with Armenia formed the initial steps of a normalization process which Turkey considers long-term. The continuation of this process will definitely depend on how willing Armenia is to solve problems," he said.
Davutoglu said Turkey was attempting to boost its relations with all its neighbors on the basis of mutual respect and good neighborly relations. Turkey's foreign minister said the solution to the current political conflicts in the southern Caucasus was the main condition for ensuring sustainable security and peace.
Davutoglu said another important condition for the establishment of a comprehensive peace in the southern Caucasus was a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.
He said the Turkish government was of the opinion that the normalization process between Turkey and Armenia would have an affirmative impact on efforts to find a solution.
"We saw that negotiations carried out between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan gained momentum after the normalization process, and the two presidents had nine meetings," Davutoglu said.
Davutoglu said that Ankara has not proposed deploying peacekeepers to Nagorno Karabakh after the conflict's resolution, the Turkish Anadolu news agency said. He stressed that rumors about such a proposal are untrue.
