Azerbaijan warns against opening of Turkey-Armenia border

“In his this Azerbaijan will lose a very important lever and further negotiations within the framework of the peace process will be impossible,” the president told journalists.

He believes this will halt negotiations.

“If the interested parties genuinely want the Karabakh conflict to be resolved peacefully, they have to stop putting pressure on Turkey,” Aliyev said.

At the same tine, he expressed confidence that Turkey will not give in to this pressure. “The Turkish-Azerbaijani brotherhood is above everything else both for us and for the people of Turkey,” he said.

Aliyev also criticised the OSCE Minsk Group for its inability to play a positive role in the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.

“The position of the Minsk Group is not translated into efforts to resolve the conflict and boils down to watching the process,” he said.

Aliyev said he had repeatedly reminded the Minsk Group co-chairmen about the need to mediate the peace efforts within the framework of their mandate. “However when we are told that the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia should come to agreement themselves and the co-chairmen will support whatever decision they make, it is not mediation,” the president said.

Evaluating the work of the Minsk Group since its creation 12 years ago, Aliyev said, “Nothing positive has been done over this time”.

“I cannot say that the Minsk Group was indifferent to the problem. It tried and tried to contribute to the settlement efforts, but there has been no result so far,” he said.