Turkish President concerned about situation in the Caucasus

Turkish President Abdullah Gul has stated at the International Strategic Research Centre in Ankara that events in Georgia have shown that the frozen conflicts in the region could explode at any moment. The Turkish President drew attention to the fact that, if during the Russian-Georgian war the Montreaux Convention on the usage of Bosporus and Dardanelles straits had not been applied the tragedy could have been of a higher scale.

Gul added that there can be different opinions about the Karabakh conflict but should be no doubt that the occupied territories belong to Azerbaijan. No claims to the contrary from Armenia could be considered. He also expressed his opinion that the intensification of negotiations on this issue is required and as a first step the occupied territories should be freed, as this could facilitate the resolving of different problems in the region.