Azeri daily warns against “ousting” Turkey from region

Zerkalo, Baku
21 May 04

The chairman of the Armenian National Assembly, Artur Bagdasaryan,
and Turkish Speaker Bulent Arinc held a meeting during the Council of
Europe conference of parliament speakers in Strasbourg. The meeting in
Strasbourg, which was the first one in the history of the Armenian and
Turkish parliaments, was devoted to the need to establish diplomatic
and parliamentary relations between the two countries, the Armenian
parliament press service reported.

[Passage omitted: The Turkish speaker said that Turkey might consider
the issue of establishing diplomatic relations in response to Armenia’s
positive steps regarding the Karabakh conflict]

We have to note that there is coldness in relations between Baku and
Ankara. Individual circles in Azerbaijan have lately been pursuing a
policy aimed at weakening Turkey’s position in the region and first
of all in the eyes of the Azerbaijani public. Experts believe that
this phenomenon is very dangerous, first of all for Baku. In this
case, Azerbaijan actually loses Turkey, which is the country’s only
support in the international arena. Ankara played a key role in saving
Azerbaijan, and ousting Turkey from the region will undoubtedly play
into the hands of Armenia and Russia in the region.

It should be stressed once again that an open anti-Turkey campaign has
actually been launched in Azerbaijan. It should have been foreseen
that sooner or later this will cause a negative response by the
political circles in Turkey. It will be a kind of catastrophe for
us if the number of people interested in breaking off relations with
Azerbaijan increases in Turkey’s government structures. Anti-Turkish
propaganda in Azerbaijan cannot remain unanswered for a long time.

One should not forget that Washington and Ankara are strategic partners
and NATO allies and that the process of gradually ousting Turkey from
the region might lead to the ousting of the USA and Europe from the
region as well.

We have to point out that the absence of the Azerbaijani MPs from
the 29 April debates of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe [PACE] on the Turkish Cypriot community triggered a negative
response in the Turkish political circles and led to coldness in
Azerbaijani-Turkish relations. Everyone expected that this would lead
to events of a larger scale.

The scandal reached its apogee when the head of the Azerbaijani
delegation said that the Azerbaijani MPs did not attended the debates
deliberately.

Now, the Turkish speaker has let us know that Turkey’s friendship
credit is not endless.