AKGUN: EU HAS SPECIAL SYMPATHY TO ARMENIA

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Dec 11 2006

Mensur Akgun, the executive director of Turkey Economic and Social
Studies Foundation (TESEV), told the APA Turkey bureau that Karabakh
and Cyprus issue have some similarities yet the EU does not make any
pressure on Armenia.

Akgun stressed that UN resolutions on both conflicts did not find
its settlement.

"Security Council has several resolutions concerning Nagorno
Karabakh conflict. No-one, even EU does not put pressure on Armenia
for execution of the resolutions. It has two reasons. First, Armenia
is not a country willing to be member of EU, second, EU has special
sympathy to Armenia. No-one can deny that Armenia is better than us
for EU" he said.

However Dr. Nilgun Gulcan from USAK says that there are great
differences between these two problems:

"First, the Turks did not occupy another country. They re-gained
their own right in their own country. The Republic of Cyprus was not
a Greek state, but a joint state. The Greeks made a coup and Turkey
helped the Turkish Cypriots to restore their rights. In Karabakh,
Armenian forces attacked another country. Karabakh was not an Armenian
state. It was not even a state but part of another state.

Not only Karabakh but also many orther towns were also occupied by
the Armenians. If Mr. Akgun thinks that these two cases are similar,
he knows nothing about both of the problems. However he is right that
the Armenians are the golden child of the EU like the Greeks."