Tag: Turkish-Armenian border

  • Ex-minister rules out Turkey’s opening border with Armenia without Azerbaijan’s consent

    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.

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    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.

  • US being petitioned to push Turkey to open border with Armenia for ethnic Armenians trapped in Syria

    US being petitioned to push Turkey to open border with Armenia for ethnic Armenians trapped in Syria

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    © Collage: Voice of Russia

    The American White House internet site, or rather its section “We are citizens”, which collects signatures under various kinds of petitions, once again has become an arena for discussion of an absolutely non-American problem. One Armenian political scientist has announced that signatures were being collected under an appeal urging Washington to force Turkey to open the border with Armenia for the sake of the fleeing refugees from Syria. The Voice of Russia’s correspondent in the United States, Roman Mamonov, has tried to find out if there is any connection with America.

    Six hundred twenty-five signatures in nine days is a modest result (as of Monday morning) of the petition, posted on the White House site by Daniel Ioannisyan, member of the Heritage opposition party. In this short document (only 10 lines) he calls upon the US government to put pressure on Turkey so that it opens the border with Armenia for the free migration of refugees from Syria. According to Ioannisyan, more than 60 thousand people were killed since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, and half a million people were forced to flee the country. According to the politician, 200 thousand ethnic Armenians live in Syria, most of whom supposedly want to leave the war-stricken Republic and return to their homeland. But the Turkish-Armenian border, which has been closed since 1993, prevents them from doing so. And now Daniel Ioannisyan means to exert pressure on Ankara with the help of Washington. The petition ends with a dramatic phrase, “There should be no closed borders in the 21st century”.

    Even in Armenia, many responded with skepticism to this initiative. Firstly, the very idea of appealing to Washington from Yerevan in order to put pressure on Ankara because of the situation in Syria looks strange.

    Secondly, political analysts doubt that there are so many Armenians in Syria who are ready to abandon everything and fly away to their homeland. And the question remains whether Armenia is ready to welcome this number of migrants.

    Users (from any country of the world) have until February 4 to obtain 25 thousand signatures in order to make the US Administration respond to this appeal. But judging by the current trend, approximately 70 signatures a day, the document will not be sent to the White House, unless a miracle happens.

    It is noteworthy that foreign politicians have long used the “We are citizens” section of the White House website as a means of addressing Washington. At present, signatures are being collected under the appeal to stop trafficking of human organs in China, the appeal to stop the persecution of Shia Muslims in Pakistan, and the appeal to monitor the situation with political rights in Venezuela. There is also a petition with the request to recognize the genocide of the Sikhs in India in 1984.

    via US being petitioned to push Turkey to open border with Armenia for ethnic Armenians trapped in Syria: Voice of Russia.

  • Azerbaijani MP: Turkey will not change its position on opening the border with Armenia

    Azerbaijani MP: Turkey will not change its position on opening the border with Armenia

    Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 9 / Trend, M. Aliyev /

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    Turkey will not change its position on opening its border with Armenia, Milli Majlis (Azerbaijani Parliament) member, deputy chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Security and Defense Aydin Mirzazade told Trend on Wednesday.

    “Despite the fact that 20 years has passed since the closure of border, and there has been a succession of governments in Turkey, the government’s position on this issue has not changed and will not change in the future,” Mirzazade said.

    Some Armenians periodically raise the question of the opening of borders with Armenia, he said.

    “However this is nothing but an initiative. Turkey has a democratic society, so the issue of opening the border with Armenia could be brought up for discussion, but broad support for this issue is not possible,” he said.

    Mirzazade said today Armenia has claims on Turkish lands and is trying to falsify history by fabricating a fictional Turkish genocide.

    “The policy pursued by Armenia today has had a negative impact on Armenia itself. This is why it can be said that none of these initiatives will be successful,” he said.

    A collection of signatures for the unconditional opening of the Turkish-Armenian border was launched on the White House website in the U.S. The petition notes that the borders should at least be opened for moving Syrian refugees from Turkey to Armenia.

    There is no need to move Syrian refugees from Turkey to Armenia and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border for this purpose is currently impossible, the Disasters and Emergency Situations Directorate of Turkey AFAD told Trend on Wednesday.

    The needs of Syrian refugees in Turkey are met by the Turkish government and international organizations, the agency said.

    There are no diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia, and the border between the two countries has been closed since 1993. The reasons for this being Armenia’s calls for international recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide and the Armenian armed forces’ occupation of Azerbaijani territories.

    via Azerbaijani MP: Turkey will not change its position on opening the border with Armenia – Trend.Az.

  • Turkey and Armenia Delay Re-opening the Border

    Turkey and Armenia Delay Re-opening the Border

    Turkey and Armenia Delay Re-opening the Border

    Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 74
    April 17, 2009 02:27 PM Age: 5 min
    Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Home Page, Turkey
    By: Saban Kardas

    On April 16 Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan attended the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Foreign Ministers Council in Yerevan. Following his BSEC meetings, Babacan discussed the recent developments between Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Turkey earlier this month had triggered media speculation that Ankara would deepen its rapprochement with Armenia despite Yerevan’s differences with Baku. Some claimed that Turkey might announce the re-opening of its border with Armenia during Babacan’s visit to Yerevan (Wall Street Journal, April 2). However, political realities have since diminished expectations for a rapid breakthrough.

    Concerned that it might lose its leverage on Armenia as a result of any thaw in Ankara-Yerevan relations, Baku raised objections. Moreover, the prospects that Turkey might “betray” Azerbaijan generated domestic uproar against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, with opposition parties and civil society organizations organizing activities to demonstrate support with their Azeri brethren (EDM, April 9). As a result, Ankara took steps to reassure Baku that any Turkish-Armenian normalization would not come at the expense of Azerbaijan (EDM, April 10). After fast-tracking the negotiations with Armenia over the past year, the process has now stalled.

    Armenia’s President Sarksyan further fuelled discussions within Turkey when he reportedly claimed that the border might re-open before his visit to the country in October (www.ntvmsnbc.com, April 10). Responding to Sarksyan’s remarks, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan clarified Turkey’s position by stating that unless a solution was found on the Karabakh issue, Turkey would not take additional steps toward opening the border (Radikal, April 11).

    Babacan told reporters on his way to Yerevan, that Turkey was seeking a comprehensive solution to regional problems. He said that efforts to normalize relations must connect the process between Turkey and Armenia with Yerevan’s ties with Baku. “We do not say, let’s first solve one problem and solve the other later,” Babacan added (Today’s Zaman, April 17). 

    Babacan’s remarks served to reiterate Turkey’s position that the re-opening of the border with Armenia must be linked to the resolution of Armenian-Azerbaijani territorial issues, which he also repeated during his meetings in Yerevan. Babacan held talks with Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian, part of which was also attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He had separate discussions with Lavrov and Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad Guliev on regional issues (Anadolu Ajansi, April 16). Although the Turkish media claimed that Babacan, Sarksyan, Nalbandian and Lavrov also held a joint meeting, this was denied in an April 17 statement issued by Turkey’s Foreign Ministry (www.trt.net.tr, April 17).

    The Turkish press reported that during his closed talks with Sarksyan, Babacan said that Ankara will not take any steps that might disappoint Baku. The parties also agreed that the Turkish-Armenian negotiations would continue at political and technical levels. Moreover, Babacan reasserted Turkey’s continued support for the parallel talks between Sarksyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (Hurriyet, April 17).

    Speaking to reporters in Yerevan, Guliev repeated Azerbaijan’s position that Ankara needs to protect Baku’s interests while conducting its rapprochement with Armenia. Any progress, in his view must be conditional, based on Yerevan’s cooperation in talks over Karabakh. The Armenian side, however, has resisted attempts to link the two sets of talks. Responding to a question during the BSEC press briefing, although he expressed his hope that the border might be opened soon, Nalbandian noted that no agreement was reached. He also said that the current negotiations for the resolution of the Karabakh dispute was being carried out within the framework of the Minsk process (www.cnnturk.com, April 16). 

    The AKP government places considerable value on Turkish-Armenian diplomacy, which it views as part of its overall policy to resolve problems with its neighbors. The re-opening of the border and the normalization of relations with Armenia will have a symbolic foreign policy meaning for the AKP, showing that its “multi-dimensional” theme justifies closer ties with all of Turkey’s neighbors, rather than only prioritizing the Middle East. Indeed, a settlement of the disputes with Armenia will help Ankara remove the Armenian “genocide” claims from the table in its relations with the United States.

    Despite an internationally favorable environment for the AKP’s policies, however, the re-opening of the border will be challenging. Ankara postponed such a politically risky decision, hoping that in the meantime it will alleviate Azerbaijan’s concerns. Indeed, since the beginning of the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, Ankara’s calculations have hinged on the assumption that it could convince Azerbaijan’s government to resolve its own problems with Armenia -removing Baku’s veto. However, Azerbaijan appears determined to resist pressures to remove its objections, unless Armenia relaxes its position on Karabakh.

    Recognizing that both Washington and Moscow remain significant players in the region, Ankara also seeks their support as leverage on Yerevan. Yet, as Turkey attempts to buy time to remove Baku’s objections, it risks jeopardizing Armenia’s commitment to the talks. The stalling of the process “has left Armenian politicians and pundits questioning the wisdom of further overtures to the Turks” (EDM, April 14). Against this background, the recent agreement between Yerevan and Tehran to construct a railway connecting Armenia to Iran’s Persian Gulf was interpreted by the Turkish media as Yerevan’s “Plan B” (Hurriyet, April 16). Through such projects Armenia could ease the economic consequences of the Turkish-Azeri embargo, which might undermine one of Ankara’s arguments that Yerevan badly needs normalization with Turkey in order to secure access to the outside world.

    https://jamestown.org/program/turkey-and-armenia-delay-re-opening-the-border/