Davutoğlu’s Azerbaijan meeting fares well

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met with Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev and the minister’s Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Memmedyarov, in Baku on Thursday. Davutoğlu was in the capital to attend the 21st meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, or BSEC’s, Foreign Ministers Council.

The meeting between the ministers lasted about an hour. Diplomatic sources said the meetings were held in a positive atmosphere. The signing of protocols between Turkey and Armenia was discussed, along with the removal of Turkish flags at the martyrdom monument and in front of a Turkish diplomatic mission. Another topic of interest concerned the latest developments with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE’s Minsk Group, which was created in 1992 to encourage a peaceful, negotiated resolution to the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Sources said the meetings fared “as they should between two brotherly nations.”

Turkey is also expected to attend the Minsk Group’s meeting in Vienna on Friday. Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Ünal Çeviköz is already in Vienna to attend the meeting and has begun preliminary talks.

BSEC meeting

Davutoğlu’s bilateral meetings followed the BSEC meeting in Baku. Delivering the opening speech of the meeting, Memmedyarov informed the attendees about economic developments in Azerbaijan, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline, the Şahdeniz gas pipeline and other energy projects.

Memmedyarov said Azerbaijan helped development in the region by realizing a number of transportation and energy projects. He added that Azerbaijan has become an investor country. “Despite the global economic crisis, Azerbaijan has grown by 6 percent,” he said.

Memmedyarov said he expected the Şahdeniz gas pipeline project and numerous transportation-energy projects to be completed, adding that when these were finished, Azerbaijan would contribute significantly to global energy security.

Azerbaijan is expected to hand over the rotating presidency of the organization to Bulgaria.

Turkey, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Moldavia, Russia, Albania, Greece, Georgia, Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, and Armenia are represented in the BSEC.