Senior level talks conducted yesterday in Moscow between Turkish and Russian diplomats concerning a proposed "Caucasia Stability and Cooperation Platform" yielded positive results, prompting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to pay a visit to İstanbul next week for detailed talks with his Turkish counterpart, Ali Babacan.

Ambassador Ünal Çeviköz, the deputy undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry, flew to Moscow on Monday. Amidst a global reaction against Russia's decision to recognize breakaway Georgian territories, Çeviköz had talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov on what Ankara earlier called "a set of concrete proposals."

As a result of these talks between Çeviköz and Titov, Lavrov decided to hold detailed talks with Babacan earlier than expected, Russian sources told Today's Zaman. Lavrov will arrive in İstanbul on Monday evening and have talks with Babacan on Tuesday, the same sources said, noting that Lavrov would depart from İstanbul following a joint press conference with Babacan. The concrete proposals were first briefly explained by Babacan to Lavrov on Friday when the former initiated a telephone conversation with the latter.

Ankara had already announced that officials from the Turkish and Russian foreign ministries would meet this week to work on the proposals and that Babacan and Lavrov will also meet in early September to review progress in the technical talks. Yet, both Russian and Turkish officials are still tightlipped concerning the content of Ankara's proposals, apparently due to the delicacy of the issue given the conjuncture in the region as well as the conflict between Georgia and Russia, which has led to global tension.

Ankara's proposal for the platform -- which is supposed to bring Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Turkey around the same table -- came after a regional crisis erupted following a Georgian military offensive in its Russian-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia earlier this month. In the first half of August, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid successive visits to Moscow and Tbilisi and traveled to Baku last week to promote and gain support for the proposed platform. Both Georgian and Russian leaders said they would welcome the idea, while a joint statement released by Erdoğan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Baku had approached the proposal "positively."

Armenia and Azerbaijan are in a state of enmity due to Armenia's continued occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan and observers say a regional alliance including both countries as members may be difficult to implement. Ahead of his departure for Baku on Aug. 20, however, Erdoğan disclosed Ankara's eagerness for Armenia's participation in a "Caucasus alliance," as he said it would greatly increase regional stability. He said the form of talks with Armenia would be set following Babacan's consultations with Lavrov. In an initial reaction, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said Yerevan welcomed the Turkish initiative.

Todays Zaman