TURKISH REGIONAL POLICY CAPTIVE OF RELATIONS WITH AZERBAIJAN

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.06.2006 15:21 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "In fact, Turkey’s regional policy, which got stuck
on Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, promotes freezing of the
Azeri-Armenian conflict," Turkish researcher Burcu Gultekin writes in
a book titled Prospects of Regional Cooperation in NATO South-Eastern
Borders: Development of the Turkish-Russian Cooperation in the South
Caucasus. In the author’s opinion, policy of prevalence of interests
of "security at the expense of economy" between Turkey and Azerbaijan
strongly limits Turkish diplomacy in the region. "Turkish regional
policy has become captive of relations with Azerbaijan, i.e. pro-Azeri
position is the price to be paid for implementation of the BTC oil
pipeline," she believes.

In Burcu Gultekin’s opinion, opening of borders may promote improvement
of Turkey’s image in the Armenian society, lead relations between the
two countries out of today’s crisis. The book also reads, "In 1920
the Soviet authorities joined Nakhichevan with Azerbaijan in spite
of the protest of Armenia. Georgia, Armenia, Nakhichevan, situated
on the Caucasus-Turkey border, are a knot of network communication
and are situated in the center of North-South and East-West corridors.

The Caucasus has the potential of becoming a bridge between Turkey
and Russia," the research book says.

The Turkish scholar comes against international transport projects,
planned in the region, i.e. East-West: Kars-Akhalkalaki and
North-South: Kazvin-Resht-Astara leaving out Armenia. "It would be
expedient to restore and use the already available Kars-Gyumri and
Sochi-Sukhumi-Yerevan-Julfa railways.

Burcu Gultekin believes that laying new railways will only aggravate
the situation in the region and will freeze the conflicts available.

The book caused acute negative response in Azerbaijan.