No co-op with Armenia - Turkish minister

Turkey is not going to establish any commercial and economic relations with Armenia, the visiting Turkish State Minister for Turkic nations Rasad Dogru said in Baku Tuesday.

He was in the Azeri capital on a four-day visit that started Saturday to eye bilateral cooperation.

"Our conditions are unchangeable. Turkey will not cooperate with Armenia unless its armed forces withdraw from the occupied Azeri lands", he said.

Commenting on Turkish business relations with Armenia through Georgia, Mr. Dogru, who is also co-chair of the Azeri-Turkish intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation, said the relations of three or four businessmen are not necessarily Turkey's position.

Visit

During the visit, the Turkish minister attended the inaugural ceremony of the grand Elite entertainment facility in Baku and traveled to Xacmaz, northeast Azerbaijan.

In Xacmaz, the Turkish official got familiar with agriculture development support programs funded by Turkey, which has allocated 380,000 US dollar worth of agricultural machinery to local farms.

Mr. Dogru held a number of meetings with Azeri government officials, Azeri co-chair of the intergovernmental commission, Vice-Premier Abid Sarifov, Ministers for Agriculture, Taxes and Education Monday to focus on increase in bilateral trade turnover, decrease in import and export taxes and cooperation in education.

President Aliyev called the visit “fruitful”, highly appreciating Mr. Dogru’s activities as co-chair of the bilateral commission. Unlike his predecessor giving way to some concerns, Mr. Dogru is actively working to deepen bilateral ties, the President said. Mr. Dogru promised to consider the Presidential request for exemption of import quotas of agricultural products from Naxcivan to Turkey.