Turkish PM Erdogan to visit Azerbaijan, Russia next week

The Turkish prime minister will meet Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev in the capital Baku on May 13 and Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on May 16, state-run Anatolian Agency reported Monday.

Erdogan's visits come as diplomatic contacts gain momentum in relation to efforts aimed at solving long-standing disputes, including those between Turkey and Armenia, and Azerbaijan and Armenia.

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.

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 region -- a frozen conflict legacy of the Soviet Union known as Nagorno-Karabakh.

AZERI OFFICIAL IN ANKARAÂ
In the Turkish capital, newly appointed top diplomat Ahmet Davutoglu met Araz Azimov, deputy foreign minister of Azerbaijan, which has been disturbed by the Ankara-Yerevan thaw, on Monday.

Baku, which has strong cultural and historic ties with Turkey, 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 suggested that Azerbaijan, a supplier of oil and gas to Europe, might even halt the sale of natural gas to Turkey.

Davutoglu met Azimov to discuss Azeri concerns over the roadmap, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman told Reuters.

 

"It is not coincidental that the minister is holding his first meeting with the Azeri deputy minister," the spokesman told Reuters.

 

"We have not had any disruption in relations with Azerbaijan but you can expect reciprocal high level contacts to intensify in the coming period," the spokesman said.

 

CLINTON STEPS IN
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will also meet Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian on Monday and Azeri top diplomat Elmar Mammadyarov in Washington on Tuesday.

 

She will meet Mammadyarov and Nalbandian to lay the groundwork for the meeting between Aliyev and Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan on May 7 in Prague, officials say.

 

The United States and Russia, along with France, are co-chairs of the Minsk Group, which is seeking to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

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