Hürriyet Daily News -- Turkey's FM Ahmet Davutoğlu says: 'We respect every country's way of functioning. It is their own process, but what concerns us is not changing the documents amid that ongoing functioning'

The Turkish foreign minister on Friday expressed his respect for every country's internal processes, but underlined that domestic concerns should not be allowed to jeopardize the protocols signed to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia.

"We respect every country's way of functioning. It is their own process, but what concerns us is not changing the documents amid that ongoing functioning," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said in reference to a top Armenian court's ruling that has clouded the efforts to establish diplomatic links between the two long-time foes.

His remarks, told to a group of journalists at the Dorchester Hotel where he is staying in London, came after he met Thursday with his Armenian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian, on the sidelines of an international conference regarding Afghanistan.

During that meeting, Ankara relayed its concerns to Yerevan over the Armenian court’s ruling referring to the 1915 killings of Armenians and citing eastern Anatolia as "Western Armenia," while Yerevan repeated its well-known position, diplomatic sources told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

"We believe [the court ruling] brings restrictions to the protocols. We raised our expectation that the process should not be blurred," said Davutoğlu, referring to his meeting with Nalbandian.

FM says political will is needed

The minister said he is seeking clarification from the Armenian side.

"We have worked with Nalbandian on various stages and gone through a difficult process. There were disagreements but the process that has carried us this far should not be harmed," said Davutoğlu.

He underlined that "mutual determination, mutual goodwill and mutual political will are needed for normalization" of relations between Turkey and Armenia. “We have open-mindedly exchanged our views [with Nalbandian]," said Davutoğlu, who declined to elaborate further, saying only, "The Armenian side is well aware of our opinion."

Nalbandian will not attend Munich conference, report

At the London meeting, Davutoğlu and Nalbandian agreed to hold more talks in the coming days and Turkish diplomats said one of them could be on the sidelines of an international security conference in Munich, Germany next week. Armenia's Nalbandian, however, will not go to the Munich conference, reports published in the Armenian media said.

"There is not a visit to Munich and a meeting with Turkey's Foreign Minister in Mr. Nalbandian's schedule," Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tigran Balayan was quoted as saying.

Intensified diplomatic traffic

The Armenian court ruling has spurred diplomatic traffic on the sidelines of the London conference. Davutoğlu met with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, on Thursday instead of previously scheduled Friday because the Azerbaijani minister had to return to Baku earlier.

Two other diplomatic contacts included those between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Nalbandian and between Lavrov and Mammadyarov regarding ongoing negotiations under the Minsk Group for a solution to Nagorno-Karabakh, an Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenia.

"Negotiations are proceeding in a good way. Progress has been made. The co-chairmen of [the Minsk Group] are working hard," said Davutoğlu. "If some other concerns emerge from domestic politics, we will move further from the peace vision."

Davutoğlu held a 15-minute meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday and said he conveyed Turkey's concerns over the Armenian court decision to Washington. "I am of the opinion that the United States better understands Turkey's concerns."