Category: Asia and Pacific

Turkey not to open border with Armenia unless Karabakh issue solved -PM

ANKARA, April 11 (Itar-Tass) –The Turkish-Armenian border will not be opened unless the Nagorno-Karabakh problem is resolved, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said.

“Unless the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is resolved, we will not take any steps towards opening the border with Armenia,” the Ihlas news agency quoted Erdogan as saying.

“Turkey will not sign the final agreement with Armenia unless Azerbaijan and Armenia reach consensus on Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.

“We will prepare the infrastructure and do preliminary work, but this [the opening of the border] will depend entirely on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani problem. It has to be settled first,” the prime minister said.

The statement came as a response to local press reports saying that the border with Armenia may be opened before the end of this month.

Some local observers believe that these reports cause tension between Turkey and Azerbaijan, which is one of Ankara’s major partners in the region.

The newspaper Hurriyet says Ankara has promised to Baku not to open the border until the Karabakh issue was resolved.

It is believed that Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev refused to attend the Alliance of Civilisations forum in Istanbul on April 6-7 because of a possible violation of Turkey’s promise.

Earlier on Friday, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said his country was ready to establish normal relations with Turkey without preconditions.

“The ball is in the Turkish court,” Sargsyan said.

The president expressed hope that he would be able to “cross the open Armenian-Turkish border” when he travels to Istanbul in September for a World Cup 2010 qualification football game between Armenia and Turkey.

He is “deeply and sincerely convinced” that Armenia “must establish good relations with Turkey”, and this conviction did not develop after his election as president.

Sargsyan believes that “such experienced diplomacy as the Turkish one will assess the degree of sincerity” of Armenian authorities in the establishment of relations with Ankara without preconditions.

The president said talks with Turkey had “never discussed the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh and the recognition of Armenian genocide” by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. “We do not condition normalisation of relations between the two countries on Turkey’s recognition of Armenian genocide and hope that the Turks do not consider the termination of recognition of genocide [by different countries] as such precondition”, he said.

At the same time, normalisation of relations with Turkey does not mean questioning the fact of genocide in 1915, the president said. “We regret millions of innocent victims and should do everything we can to prevent such tragedies in the future,” Sargsyan said.

The opening of the border with Turkey will not impede the Karabakh settlement, but on ten contrary will facilitate it, he added.

“We may have made a mistake in our relations with Turkey”, and they will take a totally different turn, Sargsayan said. But “even if it is a failure”, Armenia will “come out of this process stronger because the international community will see” that Yerevan “is ready to establish relations with Turkey without preconditions”.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began on February 22, 1988, when the first direct confrontation occurred in the enclave after a big group of Azeris had marched towards the Armenian-populated town of Askeran, “wreaking destruction en route.” A large number of refugees fled Armenia and Azerbaijan as violence erupted against the minority populations in the two countries. In the autumn of 1989, intensified inter-ethnic conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh prodded the Soviet government into granting Azerbaijani authorities greater leeway in controlling the region. On November 29, 1989 direct rule in Nagorno-Karabakh was ended and Azerbaijan regained control of the region. However later a joint session of the Armenian parliament and the top legislative body of Nagorno-Karabakh proclaimed the unification of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.

On December 10, 1991, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh held a referendum, boycotted by local Azeris, that approved the creation of an independent state. A Soviet proposal for enhanced autonomy for Nagorno-Karabakh within Azerbaijan satisfied neither side, and a full-scale war subsequently started | between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, the latter receiving support from Armenia.

The struggle over Nagorno-Karabakh escalated after both Armenia and Azerbaijan obtained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In the post-Soviet power vacuum, hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia were heavily influenced by the Russian military, and both the Armenian and Azerbajani military used a large number of mercenaries from Ukraine and Russia.

By the end of 1993, the conflict had caused thousands of casualties and created hundreds of thousands of refugees on both sides. By May 1994, the Armenians controlled 14 percent of the territory of Azerbaijan. At that point, the Azerbaijani government for the first time during the conflict recognised Nagorno-Karabakh as a third party in the war and began direct negotiations with the Karabakh authorities. As a result, an unofficial ceasefire was reached on May 12, 1994.

Despite the ceasefire, fatalities due to armed conflicts between Armenian and Azerbaijani soldiers continued. As of August, 2008, the United States, France, and Russia (the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group) were attempting to negotiate a full settlement of the conflict, proposing a referendum on the status of the area, which culminated in Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan travelling to Moscow for talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on 2 November 2008. As a result, the three presidents signed an agreement that calls for talks on a political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Source: www.itar-tass.com, 11.04.2009

April 11, 2009
World Azerbaijanis Congress against opening of Turkey-Armenia borders

Baku. Ramil Mammadli–APA. The World Azerbaijanis Congress (WAC), co-chaired by Pasha Galbinur and Mahammadrza Kheshti, issued a statement against the talks over the opening of Turkey-Armenia borders and establishing of diplomatic and economic relations, WAC press service told APA. The Congress expressed concern of all Azerbaijanis over the world. “Canakkale, where Azerbaijanis shed their blood, and Azerbaijani lands where our Turkish brothers shed their blood, both are Motherland. It is not suitable politically or publicly to open borders in one side of the Motherland when other side is at war”.

“Azerbaijani public, governmental and Diaspora organizations provide useful activity against the Armenia’s occupant policy against Azerbaijan and its territorial and “genocide” claims against Turkey. Today Armenia faces with difficult economic and political crisis. It has no other international access except Iran. Undoubtedly only Armenia will benefit from the opening of borders. This action will negatively effect on the negotiation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan, will justify the occupant policy of Armenia and encourage it for new occupation. Armenia will continue its territorial and “genocide” claims against Turkey even after the opening of the borders”.

WAC said it believed Turkey would avoid the decision, which could damage the Turkic world’s interests, and would take the interests of Turkic peoples into consideration.

April 10, 2009
Azerbaijani and Turkish Americans against reopening of borders

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov–APA. Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Union of Azerbaijani-Turkish Businessmen (ATIB) and Azerbaijani-Turkish American Foundation (ATAF) Ahmet Erentok addressed the US officials protesting against reopening of Turkey-Armenia borders, ATIB press service told APA.

He addressed President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator John Kerry and said that the opening of Turkey-Armenia borders outside of Azerbaijan’s position wouldn’t bring expected results. “In this case, relations of Azerbaijan with Turkey and the United States will be strained. The opening of borders will lead to the instability and complication of situation in the region”.

Erentok asked the US officials to be more sensitive in approaching of this issue.

Vice Chairman of ATIB Borad of Governors Cemal Yangin informed the World Turkish Business Forum in Istanbul on Friday about the ATIB’s position on the opening of Turkey-Armenia borders and spread the text of ATIB statement against the border opening among the forum participants.

April 10, 2009
Turkish-Armenian Talks ‘May Get Nowhere”

By Emil Danielyan and Karine Kalantarian

The almost year-long negotiations between Armenia and Turkey, which have brought the two neighbors close to normalizing their strained relations, could end in failure because of renewed Turkish preconditions, President Serzh Sarkisian said on Friday.

“Is it possible that we were mistaken in our calculations and that the Turks will now adopt a different position and try to set preconditions?” he said. “Of course it is possible. One can not exclude such a thing by 100 percent.

“But I think even in that case we would emerge from this process stronger. With this process, we have once again emphasized — and the international community has seen that — that we are really ready to establish relations [with Turkey] without preconditions.”

The remarks came amid growing indications that Ankara is again linking the normalization of its relations with Yerevan with a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. The Turkish government appeared ready to drop that linkage when it embarked on an unprecedented dialogue with the Sarkisian administration last year.

However, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said twice over the past week that his country can not establish diplomatic relations and reopen its border with Armenia as long as the Karabakh conflict remains unresolved. President Abdullah Gul likewise underscored the importance of Karabakh peace when he commented on Turkish-Armenian ties in an interview with “The Financial Times” newspaper published on Wednesday.

“The major problem in the Caucasus is the Karabakh question between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” said Gul. “We wish that this problem is resolved so that a new climate emerges in the Caucasus.”

The statements by the Turkish leaders followed an uproar in Azerbaijan over reports that Ankara and Yerevan are poised to sign this month an agreement envisaging an end to the 16-year Turkish blockade of Armenia. Azerbaijani leaders publicly warned their Turkish counterparts against lifting the embargo before a Karabakh settlement.

Like his foreign minister, Eduard Nalbandian, Sarkisian insisted that the Karabakh dispute has not been on the agenda of the Turkish-Armenian talks and that Armenia continues to stand for only an unconditional deal with its historic foe. Speaking at a news conference, he said he still hopes that the Turkish-Armenian border will be reopened by the time he attends a football match in Turkey between the two countries in October. “But my optimism may not prove right,” the Armenian leader cautioned, adding that the Turks could “walk away from our agreements.”

The Armenian and Turkish soccer teams already played against each in Yerevan last September. Gul paid a historic visit to Armenia to watch the game with Sarkisian. The so-called “football diplomacy” raised high hopes for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.

“In my opinion, the ball is now in Turkey’s court,” said Sarkisian. “And speaking of football diplomacy, we have to say that the ball can not remain in one court indefinitely. Every football game has a time limit.”

Turkish leaders said until recently that possible U.S. recognition of the 1915-1918 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide is the main obstacle to the success of the Turkish-Armenian negotiations. U.S. President Barack Obama avoided publicly using the word genocide during his visit to Turkey earlier this week, arguing that those talks “could bear fruit very soon.” Obama is under strong pressure from Armenian advocacy groups in the United States to honor his campaign pledge to officially recognize the genocide.

Sarkisian said that Armenian-American lobbying efforts are not directed from Yerevan. “It’s not we who are prodding the United States to recognize the genocide,” he said.

“Naturally, we constantly consult and discuss issues with leaders of [Armenian-American] structures, but such a phenomenon can not exist,” added Sarkisian. “Those people are very good citizens of the United States … and it would not be right to issue instructions to them.”

April 10, 2009
Azerbaijan Continues To Vent Anger With Turkey

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (file photo)

April 10, 2009

Speakers at the April 8 session of the Azerbaijani parliament were uniformly critical of the anticipated rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia.

Several deputies advocated convening an emergency parliament session on April 14 to debate the repercussions for Azerbaijan of the anticipated opening of the Turkish-Armenian border.

Evda Abramov, who heads the parliament faction of the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan Party, wholeheartedly endorsed that proposal. Abramov conceded that “Turkey is a separate independent state that has the right to its own foreign policy, but they have always assured us that until a solution is found to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict the frontier with Armenia will never be opened and diplomatic ties with that country will not be resumed.”

Also on April 8, Mubariz Ahmedoglu of the Center for Political Innovations and Technologies told a press conference in Baku that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party has betrayed the interests of the Azerbaijani and Turkish peoples by embarking on the process of normalizing relations with Turkey.

Ahmedoglu argued that “all these years, Azerbaijan has structured its foreign policy in accordance with Turkey’s interests. Baku refrained from developing relations with Moscow to the fullest extent and did not pursue deep cooperation with Washington precisely because strategic cooperation with Ankara was a kind of beacon, a priority for us.”

“We always defended Ankara’s interests, trying to ensure that it was via Turkish territory that energy resources reached the West. And Turkey has repaid us for this with black ingratitude,” he continued.

On April 9, Sheikh-ul-Islam Allakh-Shukur Pashazade, Azerbaijan’s most senior Muslim cleric, addressed an open letter to Ali Bardakoglu, the head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate.

“The closing by Turkey 16 years ago of its border with Armenia as a sign of protest against the unsubstantiated accusations of the so-called ‘Armenian genocide’ and the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenia bestowed on Azerbaijanis a feeling of pride that is equaled by their bitterness and disappointment at the possibility that the border will be opened,” Pasha-zade wrote.

He appealed to Turkey as a supporter of Islam, justice and truth not to open its border with “the aggressor Armenia that has occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory.”

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Baku radio station Media FM, Tural Aliyev, announced that in the event that the Turkish-Armenian border is indeed opened, his station will cease broadcasting songs by Turkish singers. He called on all other radio stations in Azerbaijan to declare a similar boycott.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan on April 8 hinted at a toughening of the Turkish position vis-à-vis Armenia, telling journalists that a solution to the Karabakh conflict must precede a solution to the “problems between Turkey and Armenia.” He added that he hopes the UN Security Council will formally designate Armenia as the occupier of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Turkish newspaper “Today’s Zaman” reported on April 9 that Turkish President Abdullah Gul will visit Baku soon to discuss with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev Azerbaijan’s concern at the anticipated Turkish-Armenian rapprochement. Citing an unnamed Turkish government official, the paper said that the Turkish-Armenian border will probably remain closed at least until October. “Ankara will use the time until November to ease Azerbaijan’s concerns,” it said.

In Armenia, meanwhile, there are growing calls for official Yerevan to halt negotiations with Ankara if they do not lead to an agreement soon. “If Turkey suddenly caves in to Azerbaijan’s threats and these negotiations yield no results soon, then I think the Armenian side will not carry on with them,” Giro Manoyan, a senior member of the influential Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun), told reporters on April 8.

Former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian took a similar view in an interview with RFE/RL earlier this week. “I believe the ball is in the Turkish court today,” Oskanian said. “Turkey should overcome its dilemma and open the border. Or else Armenia should call a halt to this process.”

— Liz Fuller and Emil Danielyan

https://www.rferl.org/a/Azerbaijan_Continues_To_Vent_Anger_With_Turkey/1606118.html

April 10, 2009
Turkish government’s policies in Caucasus are bankrupt

[ 07 Apr 2009 12:24 ]
Washington. Zaur Hasanov – APA. Interview of the professor of the Middle East Center of Utah University Hakan Yavuz to APA’s US bureau

-The relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey are tense as never before since Azerbaijan gained its independence. President Aliyev refused to visit Turkey, even after the phone conversation with Hillary Clinton. Does it mean that we are witnessing the new geopolitical shift in the region?

-For Turkey to become an important country in the Caucasus, Turkey must work together with Azerbaijan. Armenia has only 2.5 million people, Azerbaijan has 8 million people, plus incredible energy resources and economy. It is more important the ethnicity the Turks and Azerbaijanis. They speak in the same language, they belong to the same ethnic roots, there is no way under any condition that Turkey would turn against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a closest country to Turkey in terms of support, culture. These are the well known facts. But Turkey is under pressure by the USA now. Even Obama during his speech in the Parliament, even during his press conference with Abdullah Gul, he made very clear that he would like to see the border to be opened between Turkey and Armenia. Not only Turkey is under pressure of the U.S., but Turkey is under pressure of the European countries as well. They all want this border be opened. I think that Turkey didn’t do a good job and Azerbaijan also didn’t do a good job in terms of explaining the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the international community that this war was created by Armenia and large numbers of Azerbaijanis are refuges, thousands of them were killed by Armenians. In other words, we didn’t do a good job both Azeris and Turks to explain the suffering of people in Karabakh issue. That’s why somewhat the world’s public opinion and specially the European leaders and the American leadership are not fully aware or informed about this conflict.

– How will the reopening of borders influence the image of Turkey in Azerbaijan and other Turkish-speaking countries?

-Turkey did so bad and so wrong that tomorrow no country of the region, including Turkish republics, will accept Turkey seriously. Turkey does all this things because of European and American pressure. It is mean that Turkey is not independent country. It is nothing but puppet of either the USA or EU. In other words, if Turkey will pursue the current foreign policy that would create the problems in the Central Asia and the Caucasus. Turkey is led by wrong people, and the recent elections proved it. You also should take into account that there is a very powerful Armenia lobby inside of Turkey and specially within AKP. But I really think that the public opinion in Turkey very much against this. This will ruin the Turkey image. They already ruined the image of Turkey in the Turkish world.

– What is your judgment of Caucasus Peace and Cooperation Initiative?

-It was a rash decision. It wasn’t very well thought. I am very critical of the Turkish foreign policy during the Georgian crisis and I am very critical of current Turkish foreign policy right now that they don’t consult and work together with Azerbaijan. You also need to know that not only me, but most of the opposition parties in Turkey also disagree with the policy of Justice and Development Party of Racab Tayyib Ardogan. Their policies in Caucasus are bankrupt. It doesn’t work. The relations with Georgia are not good because Turkey didn’t support Georgia properly and Turkey had supported Russia, and the same with their policy toward Azerbaijan now. Turkey is shooting itself at the foot. That’s why the countries of Caucasus don’t trust Turkey as they used to. Turkey have lost Georgia, Turkey is losing Azerbaijan. Having said that, I believe that the border will not be reopened. I think that empty talks before the 24 April.

– What is the attitude of the Turkish society and politicians towards the border reopening issue?

– I have heard that there is a major reaction from the military. That’s the military is not very happy with the policy of the government, specially on the border reopening issue and other issues as well. Again, in my understanding the border will not be open. On the border issue the military very and very unhappy. Turkey is getting screwed. Turkey showed that it can’t be a reliable country. I am a Turk but unfortunately they are following such stupid path that we have lost the closest state Azerbaijan. What we have in return? What Armenia has to offer to Turkey? 2.5 million hungry people in Armenia where no money and no job. It is not in the national interest of Turkey to reopen the border.

April 9, 2009