President Gül reportedly asked Russian President Medvedev to boost efforts to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a territorial dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
During the phone conversation, Gül asked the Russian president to accelerate the process to find a lasting solution for the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, adding that the determinant actor in the South Caucasus is Russia. Presidential sources labeled the Gül-Medvedev talk a “long, comprehensive and useful conversation to make stability and peace in the South Caucasus dominant.”
Pointing to the troubled South Caucasus region, political commentators argue that even positive gestures could destabilize the region. Amid a growing crisis with Azerbaijan due to the Turkey-Armenia rapprochement, President Gül is working hard to push international actors to work for a solution to the problem.
While the process of the ratification of the protocols to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia is in progress in both the Turkish and Armenian parliaments, President Gül also met with the Minsk Group's French, Russian and American co-chairs, who have striven for 17 years to solve the problem, during October to ask them to intensify peace negotiations to find a solution for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
During the conversation, Medvedev and Gül also reportedly spoke of Turkish-Armenian relations, and Gül explained how the Karabakh conflict impacted relations between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey. “We need your support. We want you to continue your support of the preservation of the peace and stability in the region,” Gül said to Medvedev. In turn, Medvedev promised Gül that Russia would always support peace efforts in the region. Gül and Medvedev also spoke of the South Stream gas project, which is planned to transfer Russian gas under the Black Sea. Medvedev thanked Gül for allowing the use of Turkey's territorial waters in the Black Sea.
Gül also recently addressed the same issues while speaking with US President Barack Obama. In addition, during his visit to France Gül asked French President Nicolas Sarkozy to do what he could to accelerate the Azeri-Armenian peace process. “Solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and let's open the borders together. Let the honor of this be yours,” Gül was quoted as saying to Sarkozy.
