Turkish Press
June 27 2005

Orange Handkerchiefs are in Pockets Already

Ferai Tinc

Source: Hurriyet via BYEGM, 27 June 2005

Columnist Ferai Tinc comments on her meeting with Azerbaijani
politician Isa Gamber. A summary of her column is as follows:

“I recently met with Azerbaijani opposition leader Isa Gamber
in Istanbul. He was in Istanbul to participate in the meeting on
Democratization and Security in the Wider Middle East, organized by
the ARI movement last week. Gamber has been carrying the mantle of
Azerbaijan’s opposition leader for the longest time in Azerbaijan. He
believes the general elections set for this November are very important
for democratization in his country. It seems Azerbaijan will be
the next stop of the velvet revolutions. They have already put
orange handkerchiefs in their pockets. However, I didn’t talk about
these issues with Gamber. We discussed mostly Turkish-Azerbaijani
relations. ‘Turkey shouldn’t shrink from dealing with the Armenian
issue,’ he said. ‘If it’s going to take steps about this issue, it
should talk with the Azerbaijani government.’ Maybe Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan will talk about this issue with Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev during his visit this week to Baku, but
Gamber means that Turkey shouldn’t discuss the border gate problem
with Armenia separate from the Nagorno-Karabagh issue. He asked,
‘Would establishing good relations with the Armenian government save
Turkey from the pressure of the “genocide” claims?’ Then he answered
himself. ‘It’s a mistake to think that if concessions are made, the
Armenian government would soften its stance. When Turkey opened its
airspace, what changed? Genocide allegations are still the backbone of
Armenian state policy. It won’t stop these allegations. If Turkey is
going to open its borders, it should firstly talk to the Azerbaijani
government and tell it the reasons for doing this and the sums to be
earned in return.” Because the Azerbaijani government, 20% of whose
land is under Armenian occupation, should know what Turkey’s change
of policy will bring.

I wanted to know if Turkey’s relations with Armenia would always
be like this. He replied, ‘We believe that relations with Armenia
should be improved. When we come to power, we will try to do this,
but problems in Caucasia should also be solved. Democracy should
come not only to Azerbaijan, but also to Armenia.’ So many things
have slowed down in Turkish-Azerbaijani relations, compared to 15
years ago. There’s nothing concrete except mutual interest in the
Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. Now nobody is taking creative steps to develop
the humanitarian or cultural aspects of relations. Gamber said,
‘We should discuss such subjects as the Armenian or Cyprus issue with
Turkey and draw up plans together.’ It’s our responsibility to start
with Azerbaijan to develop a common basis of action covering Georgia
and Armenia.”