Baku, February 25, AZERTAC.

Azerbaijan`s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has met a delegation led by Foreign Minister of the Republic of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Mammadyarov noted that this visit will contribute to the further development of cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey based on the brotherhood and friendship.

Mevlut Cavusoglu expressed his delight with his first official visit to the Republic of Azerbaijan in the capacity of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey.

Cavusoglu honored the memory of martyrs brutally massacred by the armed forces of Armenia in Khojaly city of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan on February 25-26, 1992.

During the meeting, the sides emphasized the importance of the Turkey-Azerbaijan High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council.

The sides also noted that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line would be launched soon and this project will serve for the sake of development and progress in the region and beyond.

Based on the strong political will demonstrated by two countries, the ministers expressed their confidence in the implementation of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) within the scheduled time frame.

At the meeting views were also exchanged on cooperation in the economic, trade, humanitarian, tourism, consular issues and other fields between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

FM Mammadyarov highly appreciated the invitation of Azerbaijan to the “G-20” summit and other events in this framework by Turkey as a host country of “G-20” in 2015. The sides stressed the importance of cooperation and mutual support within the framework of international organizations.

As it is the case in the bilateral framework, the ministers underlined the successful development of cooperation in trilateral Azerbaijan-Iran-Turkey, Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey and Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan- Turkey formats adding that new trilateral formats will also be established.

Giving the information about the current negotiation process towards the resolution of Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov emphasized the lack of progress in the conflict resolution at the result of non-constructive policy of Armenia. He stressed that for the settlement of the conflict, first and foremost, Armenian troops has to be withdrawn from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

Noting the importance of the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict in accordance with the international law and the UN Charter within the territorial integrity, sovereignty and internationally recognized borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reaffirmed Turkey’s support to the just and fair position of Azerbaijan in this regard.

At the meeting the ministers underlined inadmissibility of falsification of history under the pretext of so-called “Armenian genocide” by Armenia and its diaspora and noted the importance of joint efforts against these lies.

After the meeting the ministers held joint press conference.