April 29, 2004 - 20:56 AMT
IN ISTANBUL HEADS OF TURKISH, AZERI AND ARMENIAN FMs WILL DISCUSS OPENING OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH BORDER, TURKISH PRESS WRITES
The opening of the Armenian-Turkish border will be the main topic at the trilateral meeting of the heads of Foreign Ministries of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia in the course of the NATO Istanbul Summit this summer, Turkish Zaman newspaper reports. According to the source, along with inclusion of Ankara in the Karabakh settlement process the stepwise plan of solution of the problem may be realized. Armenia will withdraw from five seized Azeri regions, the Azeri-Armenian border will open, Turkey will solve its border problems with Armenia using "the Syrian model." As Azeri political scientist Rasim Musabekov explained to Echo Baku newspaper, by saying "the Syrian model" one apparently means refusal of Yerevan from territorial claims to Turkey. In its turn Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Mehtin Mirza found it difficult to say anything on the report in question, as in his words, "we have nothing specific on that question now."