NEW YORK (Hurriyet)–Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan met Sunday with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov in New York. A trilateral meeting between Turkish, Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers is expected to be held on Friday.
Babacan had a meeting with Mammadyarov at Turkish House in New York.
The Turkish foreign minister is also scheduled to have a trilateral meeting with Mammadyarov and Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian at the U.N. headquarters during the week.
The meeting is expected to take place on Friday, with Babacan first meeting with Nalbandian, the Anatolian Agency reported. The trilateral meeting is expected to begin after the Babacan-Nalbandian meeting, it added.
Turkey aims to bring Armenian and Azerbaijani top diplomats together at the same table with the apparent hope of taking a step towards finding a solution to the conflicts.
The ministers are expected to discuss the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in their both bilateral and trilateral meetings.
Babacan and Mammadyarov had a meeting at a time when serious developmen’s were occurring in the Caucasus, the spokesman of the Turkish Foreign Ministry told reporters after the meeting.
Turkey saw the atmosphere that took hold in the Caucasus after the crisis in Georgia as an opportunity to review some regional problems, spokesman Burak Ozugergin quoted Babacan as saying.
Mammadyarov said his country was searching a solution within the scope of "win-win" principle in the region. He also appreciated Turkey’s role in the Caucasus.
He said he supported Turkey’s proposal to set up Caucasus Cooperation and Stability Platform.
According to the Anatolian News Agency, Mammadyarov said that Azerbaijan sees a tripartite meeting with Turkey and Armenia as positive, and considers that it can be an opportunity to resolve problems.
Babacan will have talks with around 40 foreign ministers on the sidelines of the 63rd session of the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly.
The Turkish foreign minister also met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Monday.