UPDATE - Turkish foreign minister joins meeting of South Caucasus platform in Iran

UPDATES WITH FIDAN'S REMARKS DURING MEETING OF SOUTH CAUCASUS PLATFORM

By Muhammed Enes Calli

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday visited Iran to attend a regional cooperation platform for the establishment of permanent peace and stability in the South Caucasus, according to Turkish diplomatic sources.

The meeting, organized at the level of foreign ministers in Tehran, was attended by Türkiye, the host country Iran, and Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia.

At Monday’s meeting, Fidan emphasized the significance of the initiative in showing the international community how regional countries can solve their own problems, the ministry said on X.

He also stressed Türkiye's commitment to resolving regional issues through dialogue towards lasting peace, and voiced satisfaction that hurdles to cooperation and friendship in the region are being removed.

He said the path to regional peace and stability goes through the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement between neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Fidan also stressed that the opening of regional transportation connections would accelerate normalization and peace processes.

- Karabakh under Azerbaijani sovereignty

The first meeting of the regional cooperation platform proposed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev took place in Moscow in December 2021 at the level of deputy foreign ministers.

The meeting in Iran comes in the wake of dramatic developments in the South Caucasus’ Karabakh region last month.

After nearly 30 years of Armenian occupation, most of Karabakh was liberated by Azerbaijan during a war in the fall of 2020, which ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement.

This September, the Azerbaijani army initiated an anti-terrorism operation in Karabakh to establish constitutional order in the region, after which illegal separatist forces in the region surrendered.

Azerbaijan, having now established full sovereignty in the region, has reiterated its call on the ethnic Armenian population in Karabakh to become part of Azerbaijani society.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are both former Soviet republics, and Iran closely borders the region, including the area of a projected corridor to connect Azerbaijan to its exclave of Nakhchivan, and from there provide access to Türkiye.