Tuesday, April 26 2016 10:56

Ankara has reacted to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's statement made in Yerevan.  
When expressing his attitude to the Russian officials' statements about Turkey's role in escalation in Karabakh, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at the 7th Global

Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations in Baku that he is not going to respond to Russian officials' statements because he considers such statements irrelevant. "Turkey's stand on this matter is clear. The ceasefire was violated by Armenia," he said.           

"It would be big optimism to wait for a positive approach or political settlement from those responsible for the escalation in Karabakh. Under all conditions, we support the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. The Karabakh problem, the problem of 'occupied territories of Azerbaijan' should be settled in a diplomatic and peaceful way both in the decisions of the UN and other organizations within the framework of 'territorial integrity of Azerbaijan', he said. 

At the same time, Cavusoglu tried to shift the responsibility for the ceasefire violation to the Armenian side, blaming it for reluctance to resolve the conflict in a political way.    
"By declaring ceasefire unilaterally, Azerbaijan demonstrated to the whole world that it campaigns for peaceful settlement of the conflict," he said, adding that Turkey wants the conflict to be resolved peacefully but in any case it will support Azerbaijan.  

To note, during his visit to Yerevan, Sergey Lavrov stressed that the Turkish leadership's statements are unacceptable, because they call for war, not peace. "This runs counter to the OSCE Minsk Group Co- Chairs' positions and to the stand of the international community. Unfortunately, we have already become accustomed to such tricks of the incumbent Turkish leadership," Lavrov said.        

To note, during the recent escalation in the Karabakh conflict zone, Ankara has repeatedly made lopsided statements about its support to Baku in the Karabakh conflict settlement and about the need to resolve the problem based on the principle of territorial integrity only.