Turkish Forum English

Category: Southern Caucasus

Saakashvili visits Turkey

TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s president Mikheil Saakashvili is on an official visit to Turkey, and has already held meetings with the Turkish prime minister and ethnic Georgians living in the northern industrial city Bursa.

President Mikheil Saakashvili met with Georgians in the Turkish city Bursa. (President’s photo.)

After meeting with the prime minister, Saakashvili said they discussed the issue of Rabati Castle, along with other important topics.

“First of all we spoke about the issue of NATO integration, and Turkey promised to help us in this direction,” he said on a joint press-conference held after the meeting, “Our main guide to the NATO integration is Turkey.”

The two also discussed the economy.

Commenting on the reconstruction of Rabati caste, a hot topic during the last week, he said that the Turkish prime minister assured him that there weren’t any categorical demands about the castle.

“The prime minister agreed with me that the dome should remain gold. All the other issues should be discussed in detail together with specialists not to harm the interests of any party,” Saakashvili said.

He said he had agreed with the Turkish prime minister that Georgian specialists will be allowed onto Turkish land to study the Georgian heritage there, which is important, he said, because this cultural heritage needs to be saved.

“Let them leave Rabati dome alone. We need to conduct a respectful policy in regards to foreign affairs,” he added.

During the visit the president met with ethnic Georgians living in Bursa. The locals there told him about a desire to have close relations with their historic homeland. The president promised to grant citizenship to everyone who retained Georgian language and culture.

via Saakashvili visits Turkey | Democracy & Freedom Watch.

April 8, 2013
Turkey confirms Rabati castle agreement

Turkey’s ambassador to Georgia confirms that experts from Turkey have visited Rabati castle and requested certain ‘changes and improvements’ for the complex.

Two days ago, a spokesperson for President Mikheil Saakashvili presented a draft of an agreement the government has prepared with Turkey, which included making changes to the rehabilitated Rabati castle complex in southern Georgia.

The president and his party are strongly opposed to the plans and argue that the changes would destroy the castle.

Turkish ambassador Levent Murat Burhan on Thursday told journalists that there is no final decision yet, but experts expect there to be made corrections and changes at the complex.

Rabati castle dates back to the 13th century and lies in the town of Akhaltsikhe. It contains a synagogue, a mosque, a church and a minaret, and was refurbished in 2011-2012 by Saakashvili’s government.

Now, the Culture Ministry will organize a round table discussion about the reconstruction of Rabati, and has invited experts, employees of the complex, and representatives of civil society. The ministry also has invited Vano Merabsivhili, one of the National Movement leaders, who managed the last round of rehabilitation work at Rabati.

Yesterday, he responded to this issue saying that ‘the government started fighting against Rabati complex.’

“Everyone can come and present their own arguments and counter-arguments,” Culture Minister Guram Odisharia said after Thursday’s government session.

The minister said that a group from the ministry has arrived in Akhaltsikhe in order to study the situation and inform society. Meanwhile, discussion may continue during the round table.

The new government thinks there were made mistakes during the last reconstruction of Rabati, and Turkey has requested to improve them. The government therefore prepared the text of an agreement, which Manana Manjgaladze, Saakashvili’s spokesperson, presented yesterday.

The text of the agreement foresees ‘restoring the Akhaltsikhe bath complex from the 18th century; to change the color of the dome, to bring back the older lattices, to check the drainage system around the buildings and if needed, to improve the facing material.’

via Turkey confirms Rabati castle agreement | Democracy & Freedom Watch.

April 5, 2013
Ex-minister rules out Turkey’s opening border with Armenia without Azerbaijan’s consent

Opening Turkey’s border with Armenia is only possible after an agreement with Azerbaijan, former Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin told Trend news agency on Thursday.

According to him, Azerbaijan and Turkey have a very close relationship, and Turkey can not unilaterally open the border with Armenia.

“Turkey and Azerbaijan have a special relationship. Nobody has described it better than the great leader Heydar Aliyev: “One nation – two states.” Turkey’s border with Armenia can not be opened unilaterally. This is very important in terms of relations with the South Caucasus, in particular with Azerbaijan. The border was open back when I was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. However, we shut it down when Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

The opening of the border between Turkey and Armenia is only possible after an agreement with Azerbaijan has been reached. Turkey should not make any decision potentially harmful for Azerbaijan,” Cetin said.

With regard to the opening of the Van-Yerevan flight, the ex-minister said that was a decision of a private company, not the Turkish government.

“Turkey is an open country, and private companies can make any decisions. However, observing Azerbaijan’s concern on the issue, the decision was canceled,” Cetin said.

According to him, peace must be established in the region. However, this peace must be consistent with international laws and the UN resolutions.

“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be solved step by step. At the first stage, at least five regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh must be freed. This would mark a sign to promote the settlement of the conflict,” Cetin said.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war in the early 1990s. Armenian armed forces have since occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia’s withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.

A precarious cease-fire was signed in 1994. However, units of the Armenian armed forces commit armistice breaches on the frontline almost every day.

Russia, France and the U.S. — co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group — are mediating peace negotiations. Peace talks have been mostly fruitless so far.

via Ex-minister rules out Turkey’s opening border with Armenia without Azerbaijan’s consent – AzerNews.

April 5, 2013
Renowned Muslim superstar of Azeri origin to perform in Istanbul

The Muslim world’s biggest musical superstar, Sami Yusuf, has dropped into Istanbul to promote his latest work, “Salaam,” which features 16 songs, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

“It is a generous album. It gives message of peace, solidarity, love and, most of all, hope. These are eternal and permanent truths, values,” Yusuf said after landing in Istanbul on March 31, adding that the album had gained greater meaning in the wake of the changes in the Arab world.

Yusuf, a British singer-songwriter of Azeri origin, said humanity was being forced to deal with big problems.

“I don’t have a political personality; I consider problems in a humanistic matter. We have gone through the changes brought by the Arab Spring all together. In my opinion, this album gains meaning in this context because it talks about overcoming problems and difficulties,” he said, adding that “art should be pure.”

He said he had composed the song “I am your hope” after the revolution in Egypt and that the song was related to youth but not a specific party or group.

Yusuf said his music was considered as divine, rock or pop in the world but he preferred the definition “Spiritique.”

“This is a word I have invented. The goal of my own music, which I define with this word, is to draw listeners to the spiritual world. No one can monopolize the spiritual world,” he said.

April 4, 2013
Turkey scraps flights to Armenia

ANKARA: Turkey has cancelled the first ever scheduled Turkish flights to its long-time rival Armenia, days before the first plane was due to take off, officials have said, following fierce opposition from Turkey’s ally and energy partner Azerbaijan.

The twice-weekly flights between Turkey’s eastern city of Van and the Armenian capital Yerevan were due to begin on April 3 and, encouraged by a US push for rapprochement, were meant to boost bilateral tourism and trade.

But with just over a week until the first flight, and with tickets already on sale, Turkey’s civil aviation authority stepped in and ordered the flights to be suspended.

Officials at Turkey’s transport ministry confirmed the flights had been stopped but declined to give a reason. BoraJet, the private Turkish carrier set to fly the 45-minute route, has also declined to comment on the stoppage. One BoraJet official twice denied the Van-Yerevan flights had ever been planned, even though the route was still available as a booking option on the firm’s website on Monday.

Narekavank Tour, a Yerevan-based travel agency which has spent the last three years organising the flights together with a Turkish travel agency in Van, said the reason was political.

“The organisers were keen on staying away from politics. It is very sad and discouraging that Turkish authorities were not able to do the same and finally let politics interfere with this promising initiative,” it said in a statement. Asked if he thought this was due to specific pressure from Azerbaijan, Armen Hovhannisyan, co-founder of Narekavank Tour, said: “Of course, it’s part of the whole formula, and maybe they have been working behind the scenes.”

Officially at war, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a bitter dispute over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh – a mountainous enclave within Azerbaijan with a majority Armenian population – which Armenian-backed forces seized along with seven surrounding Azeri districts in 1991.

Turkey, which has never opened an embassy in Armenia, closed its land border in 1993 in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan, a Muslim and Turkic-speaking ally which also supplies Ankara with billions of cubic metres of Caspian natural gas each year.

Reuters

via Turkey scraps flights to Armenia.

April 3, 2013
Turkish media outlets comment on closing of Yerevan-Istanbul flight

Azerbaijan, Baku, March 30 / Trend /

Closing of the Yerevan-Istanbul flight is due to the bankruptcy of the Armenian “Armavia” Airline, which carried out the flight, the Turkish Hurrriyet newspaper reported on Saturday.

Armenian airline due to its bankruptcy stops carrying out the flights to more than 100 countries, including Turkey, the newspaper reported.

From April 1, direct Yerevan-Istanbul flight will not be carried out, Armenia News – NEWS.am. reported on Saturday.

via Turkish media outlets comment on closing of Yerevan-Istanbul flight – Trend.Az.

March 31, 2013