President Gul attends first eastern partnership summit in Prague

President Abdullah Gul yesterday attended the first Eastern Partnership summit in Prague, the Czech Republic, which holds the EU's rotating term presidency. On the sidelines of the summit, which sought ways to improve the European Union's political and economic ties with six ex-Soviet republics, including Azerbaijan and Armenia, Azeri and Armenian Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan met at the residence of the US Embassy in Prague to discuss ways to solve the two-decade conflict between their countries over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is also complicating ongoing reconciliation efforts between Turkey and Armenia. The US Embassy said in a statement that the two leaders discussed the issue as part of international mediation efforts led by the United States, Russia and France, the co-chairs of the Minsk Group, which works under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Representatives of the three countries were also present during the talks, which were closed to the press. Speaking to reporters afterwards, representatives of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, led by US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew Bryza, said that the Azeri and Armenian presidents had made "serious progress" towards resolving the longstanding Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. The presidents were able to narrow their differences on the basic principles and agree on the basic ideas that they came to discuss, said Bryza. "They do agree on a basic approach," he added. "It's now up to us to work actively with the foreign ministers as requested by both presidents to work through the details and finalize these concepts that were discussed today. That's a positive sign. Today showed us that we are making serious progress." Bryza declined to give details about the talks, which also were attended by the foreign ministers of the two countries. US officials later told their Turkish counterparts of common ground reached by the Azeri and Armenian leader during the meeting. Gul also held separate talks with Aliyev and Sarkisian. During his meeting with Aliyev, Gul reassured his Azeri counterpart that Turkey would never do anything that would harm Azerbaijan's interests. Gul also heard from Aliyev about his meeting with Sargsyan. During his meeting with Sargsyan, Gul stressed the importance of the two leaders' meeting in Prague and invited him to visit Turkey to see a 2010 World Cup qualifying match. Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave inside Azerbaijan, has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces since a six-year conflict that killed about 30,000 and displaced 1 million people before a truce was reached in 1994. Turkey closed the border in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan. Speaking to reporters en route to Prague, Gul said this year offers an important window of opportunity to solve problems between Azerbaijan and Armenia which should not be missed. Today Gul will also attend the South Corridor summit, focusing on the Nabucco natural gas pipeline project, in Prague.