Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan urged the United Nations to resolve a dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh mountain enclave to allow Turkey to normalise ties with Armenia, according to Reuters. U.S. President Barack Obama, in a visit to Turkey this week, pressed Ankara and Yerevan to complete talks aimed at restoring diplomatic ties between the two neighbours, a move which could shore up stability in the volatile and oil-rich Caucasus. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan, which was fighting Armenian-backed separatists over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Minsk group -- set up in 1992 and co-chaired by Russia, the United States and France -- is seeking a solution to Nagorno-Karabakh, one of the most intractable conflicts arising from the Soviet Union's collapse. There has been no progress. Erdogan told a news conference late on Wednesday that a deal with Armenia, which could include the reopening of the border, would have to wait until Armenia and Azerbaijan first settled their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. "The Azerbaijan-Armenian dispute should be resolved first. Then, problems between Turkey and Armenia can be solved, too," Erdogan said. "We hope the U.N. Security Council takes a decision naming Armenia as occupier in Nagorno-Karabakh and calling for a withdrawal from the region. This is a process the Minsk Group... could not succeed in for 17 years. We hope this trio will accomplish that."
