Davutoglu: "October will be a month of peace"

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday that while Turkey continues its efforts for peace in the Middle East, the Caucasus and the Balkans, October should be a "month of peace." Speaking in Ankara on the heels of his visit to the UN General Assembly in New York, he said that Turkey will do its best to prevent new sanctions on Iran. "Sanctions would hurt the Iranian public as well as Iran's neighbors, including Turkey. So we will step up diplomatic efforts to prevent the option of sanctions," he said. Davutoglu and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan are expected to visit Iran later this month, and an Iranian delegation will meet today with representatives of the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany in Geneva for talks on its nuclear program. Turkey is currently a temporary member of the council. Davutoglu also said that he spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Monday, adding that Iran has assured the international community that it will work with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Turning to the Caucasus, he said that along with the Turkish-Armenian normalization process, meetings between Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azeri territory occupied by Armenia, is a nearly unprecedented development. Erdogan announced on Sunday that Turkey and Armenia would sign a deal in Zurich to establish diplomatic ties on Oct. 10, but the agreement must be approved by the countries' parliaments to take effect.