Armenia cautious on trilateral meeting with Turkey, Azerbaijan

Oskanyan’s remarks came after a suggestion from Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul for a trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan prior to the NATO Summit in Istanbul in June to discuss a solution to the longstanding territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Speaking at a news conference in Yerevan on Monday, Oskanyan said the three countries had met in the past to discuss regional cooperation and had also touched on bilateral problems such as Nagorno-Karabakh.

"If a similar agenda were offered this time, I see no problem in [Armenia’s] participation in such talks. … Armenia is not opposed to such a meeting provided that regional issues are taken up."

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was in Ankara last week for talks, during which time Turkey declared support for a proposal to resolve the dispute with neighboring Armenia through a "phased" process, calling on Armenia to withdraw from part of the territory that it occupied in Nagorno-Karabakh, a step that would be followed by the easing of trade sanctions by Azerbaijan.

Parallel to these steps, Turkey would also open its border gate with Armenia, according to conclusions from Aliyev’s talks.

However, Armenian Minister Oskanyan said they would not accept Turkey as a mediator in such a meeting, claiming that Turkey is biased on the issue.

For more than a decade, Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region has been under Armenian occupation, and international efforts to resolve the dispute have failed to bring a solution.

Turkey severed its diplomatic ties with Yerevan and closed its border with the country to protest the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and Yerevan’s support for Armenian diaspora attempts to gain international recognition of an alleged Armenian genocide at the hands of the former Ottoman Empire.

But international pressure on Turkey has been growing in recent days, with the United States and European Union urging Ankara to lift its trade blockade on Armenia and open its borders to the country.

Upon a question concerning Gul’s remark that everybody should learn a lesson if a settlement is reached on Cyprus, Oskanyan noted that a possible settlement on the island could constitute a model for the Nagorno-Karabakh administration.