Hurriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 02, 2009 14:38
ISTANBUL - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet her Azerbaijani and Armenian counterparts in Washington next week as part of diplomatic efforts aimed at solving long-standing disputes in the southern Caucasus, according to reports on Saturday. (UPDATED)
Clinton will meet Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian on Monday and Azeri top diplomat Elmar Mammadyarov on Tuesday, broadcaster CNNTurk reported.
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The talks are expected to focus on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the normalization process between Ankara and Yerevan.Â
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Turkey and Armenia, under Switzerland's mediation, agreed last month on a "road map" deal for talks that could lead to the normalizing of ties and the opening of their border.
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Ankara 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 Nagorno-Karabakh region.
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Clinton has hailed the announcement of the road map as a historic step toward normal relations between Turkey and Armenia.Â
She will meet Mammadyarov and Nalbandian to lay the groundwork for the meeting between Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan on May 7 in Prague, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza, the State Department's point man in the Caucasus, told CNNTurk.
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As part of the diplomacy traffic among Washington, Ankara, Baku and Yerevan, U.S. President Barack Obama, who has extended his support to the normalization process between Ankara and Yerevan, telephoned last month Aliyev.
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Clinton and U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden had also phone talks with high-level Armenian officials.
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