Mr Erdogan declared that friendship with Armenia was no longer possible unless it withdrew from Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russia argues that Turkish-Armenian relations should not be linked to Nagorno-Karabakh, a view shared in Washington.
Aghdam is one of seven Azeri areas surrounding Nagorno Karabakh still held by Armenian forces.
One thing is certain: making peace in Nagorno-Karabakh requires the skill of walking over a minefield.
Meanwhile, the ten-year ceasefire in the war over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is under strain.
Relations between the two were disrupted 16 years ago over Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan.
The Azeris reckon with some evidence that Russia helped Armenia win the war against them for the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory.
These were sealed in 1993 after Armenia's short war with Azerbaijan over the mainly Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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It is also wary of Russia's show of wanting to help Armenia and Azerbaijan make peace over Nagorno-Karabakh.
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The dominant issue, however, was the dormant conflict with Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh, a disputed enclave populated by Armenians.
Nagorno-Karabakh, the much-disputed mountain enclave in western Azerbaijan, is full of Christian Armenians.
Yet Sadakhlo cannot last for ever, since it is an anomaly created by the geography of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.
Moldova and Azerbaijan, for example, have headaches with similar entities, Transdniestria and Nagorno-Karabakh.
In the end, all this pent-up trade depends on settling the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.
This was sealed by Turkey in 1993 to show solidarity with Azerbaijan, which had just lost 20% of its territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh.
Too bad an ongoing conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the primarily Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh has turned off a big trade partner, Turkey.
Azerbaijan fought a war with neighbouring Armenia in the 1990s, in which it lost the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and the two sides may yet fight another.
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Indeed, absent Russian efforts to reduce tensions, Armenia and Azerbaijan would almost certainly have gone to war over Nagorno-Karabakh sometime over the past five or six years.
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Even before the Georgian war, Turkey seemed to understand that isolating Armenia is not making it give up the parts of Azerbaijan that it occupies outside Nagorno-Karabakh.
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Some Armenians gloat that Russia's invasion of Georgia kyboshes the chances of Azerbaijan ever retaking Nagorno-Karabakh by force, though others say the two cases are quite different.
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The country has found it difficult to escape from poverty, partly because of a trade blockade imposed by neighbouring Turkey and Azerbaijan since the 1990s war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
For Mr Kocharian is a former leader of the disputed (but Armenian-controlled) territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was conquered by Armenia in 1993 but is still recognised internationally as part of Azerbaijan.
The ethnic mayhem in Nagorno-Karabakh, Baku and elsewhere in the region may be especially useful in supporting Gorbachev's unjustified contention that the various nationalities of the USSR cannot be afforded independence without calamitous results.
In a dramatic shift, Turkey even dropped its long-running precondition that Armenia must withdraw from the territories that it occupied in the 1990s after its war with Azerbaijan over the mainly Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mr Gul's decision to accept an invitation from Armenia's president, Serzh Sarkisian, has raised expectations that Turkey may establish diplomatic ties and open the border it closed during the 1990s fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Unlike chess-players, though, all the participants can win in this game, it is hoped, if they agree on a common aim: peace between Turkey and Armenia, which would help to thaw the frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the (mainly Armenian) territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
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