18:17, 3 February 2007

Turkish ex-minister of culture: Turkey and Azerbaijan should create a union state

Namik Kyamal Zeibek, former Turkish minister of culture, said in one of his recent interviews that Turkey and Azerbaijan should create a united state. "Turkey and Azerbaijan have a lot in common, and it promotes creation of a formation of this sort. In this connection, I think that construction of the railway Baku-Tbilisi-Kars will have a paramount value. This railroad will bring our countries together and link our economies, and which is the most important, it will bring our fraternal nations still closer," Mr. N. K. Zeibek has noted. "There are many countries in the world already that move along the way of integration."

However, in N. K. Zeibek's words, it is necessary to reasonably and clearly search for the mechanisms of such unification. In his opinion, the recent problems between Russia and Belarus have shown that in such cases one should never hurry up and approach all the issues in due details to have no frictions between the countries in the future.

Author: Zaur Rasulzade, CK correspondent