Turkey demands Karabakh progress

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been edging towards a peace process

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ruled out re-opening the border with Armenia until it pulls troops out of Azerbaijan.

Turkey and Armenia last month agreed a framework to normalise their strained relations, raising hopes their long-sealed border might be re-opened.

That raised concerns in Azerbaijan, where Armenian troops occupy the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

But Mr Erdogan said a thaw with Armenia would not come at Azerbaijan's expense.

Speaking in the Azeri capital, Baku, he reiterated his backing for Turkey's long-standing alliance with Azerbaijan.

"The border was closed as a result of the occupation of Azeri territories and therefore it will not be opened until the occupation ends," he said at a news conference with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies inside Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians since a war in the 1990s, which left some 30,000 people dead and forced more than one million people from their homes.

While Turkey and Armenia have been engaged in a cautious rapprochement, so have Armenia and Azerbaijan, including meetings between their leaders.

International diplomats have spoken of a new air of co-operation between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and there is pressure for them to work towards an agreement.

But Azerbaijan has protested over the potential thaw between Turkey and Armenia, fearing the loss of its leverage over Armenia through its alliance with Turkey.

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