June 5, 2003 - 18:41 AMT
ANKARA WISHES TO RESTORE RELATIONS WITH YEREVAN
We wish to restore our relations with Armenia. Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul stated when commenting on a meeting he had the other day in Madrid with Armenian foreign ministry head Vardan Oskanian. At the same time, as reported by "Mediamax" agency, A. Gul noted that the improvement of the relations will demand both parties to take certain steps and the heads of the foreign policy departments of Turkey and Armenia intend to approach the issue "with renewed energy." The Turkish minister also told his Armenian colleague that Ankara is ready to make efforts to solve the problems available between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In his words, henceforth Turkey intends to pay much attention to the issue of settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. He also said he had met with the OSCE Minsk group co-chairs last week.