'Turkey should be with Azerbaijan at negotiating table'

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey should be with Azerbaijan at the negotiating table to resolve the Upper Karabakh dispute, a Turkish opposition leader said on Tuesday.

"Turkey should do this to show Azerbaijan is not alone," Meral Aksener, the leader of Good Party (IP), told her party's parliamentary group.

She called on the Turkish government to be more careful on the issue, asking it to "concentrate on lobbying and diplomacy."

Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been strained since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.

New clashes erupted on Sept. 27, and since then Armenia has continued attacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces. This is despite a Moscow-brokered humanitarian truce reached last week for the exchange of prisoners and retrieval of bodies.

The OSCE Minsk Group – co-chaired by France, Russia, and the US – was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but to no avail. A cease-fire, however, was agreed to in 1994.

Turkey has supported Baku's right to self-defense, and demanded a withdrawal of the occupying forces.