BAKU - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, ''Turkey has been defending from the very beginning that a solution should be found to the Upper Karabakh dispute under territorial integrity of Azerbaijan from the very beginning. Meanwhile, opening of borders between Turkey and Armenia depends on Armenia's attitude.''
In an interview with Azerbaijani Three Points newspaper, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''there are some obstacles in front of normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations and opening of borders. Ignorance of official borders by Armenia, Armenia's efforts for recognition of so-called Armenian genocide, and long-standing historical problems between Turkey and Armenia have been affecting our relations negatively.''
''Armenia's maintaining its occupying policy against all resolutions of the UN for Upper Karabakh also has a negative impact on our bilateral relations. In order to normalize those relations, Armenia should set good neighborly relations with Turkey and the other regional countries,'' he said.
-TURKEY-AZERBAIJAN RELATIONS-
''There have been historic cultural and social relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan. Our bilateral relations have reached to a perfect level in only 14 years after Azerbaijan acquired its independence,'' he said.
Prime Minister Erdogan noted that the bilateral relations would further improve after the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline project was put into force, adding, ''other energy projects will bring our relations to the level of strategic partnership.''
Referring to Turkish-Azeri economic relations, Erdogan said that ''although political relations between the two countries are excellent, economic ties are not at a satisfactory level.''
''The annual trade volume between Turkey and Azerbaijan is only about 430 million U.S. dollars. This is not an amount that makes us happy. There need to be progress made in the areas of customs and taxation as well as banking between the two countries.''
-TURKEY'S EU MEMBERSHIP PROCESS-
Referring to Turkey's EU membership process, Prime Minister Erdogan said, ''we expect the EU to make a decision at its summit on December 17th to open entry talks with Turkey. In that case, accession negotiations will start in 2005. The negotiation process will be difficult and take a long time. The process will entail us to work hard. The process also requires adequate financial source.''
''We are planning to fulfil entry talks in 2010 and reach our target of EU full membership. Turkey's membership will have positive impacts in economy, politics and culture in Europe. Turkey will make a valuable contribution to the EU in energy. Also, the EU's influence in the Islam world will increase with membership of Turkey,'' Prime Minister Erdogan added.
(UK-ES-AÖ) 29.10.2004