Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that he offered to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem together with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He said this on Wednesday during a speech at the Parliament, which is broadcasted by the NTV channel.
"We had good talks with Putin. We discussed Karabakh in detail. We said: let's already finish it all in the Caucasus. If you want, we will take steps together, we will talk to the parties. But now it is important for us to clearly decide whether we will settle the problem or not," Erdogan said. Only after making a fundamental decision, according to him, "it is possible to take concrete steps". The telephone conversation with Putin took place on Tuesday evening.
The Turkish leader believes that the Minsk Group "did not solve the problem, but only stalled for time". Erdogan suggested that Putin "hold a meeting with [Armenian Prime Minister Nikol] Pashinyan", and he himself is ready to talk "with his brother Ilham" Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan. "Let us already do well, let the delegations meet. I am sure we will get the result," Erdogan said, recalling that Ankara fully supports Baku in the conflict.
He also noted that in his conversation with Putin he reminded the Russian side of the "red lines" that Turkey would not pass on in the Karabakh issue, because then "descendants will not forgive him". According to Erdogan, he informed the Russian President about the mercenaries from the Kurdish armed groups allegedly fighting on the Armenian side.
On Tuesday, the Kremlin press service reported that Putin and Erdogan, in particular, discussed developments in the conflict zone in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Russian President informed the Turkish leader about his contacts with the leadership of Azerbaijan and Armenia and the steps being taken to achieve a truce and de-escalate the crisis as soon as possible.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS