IS THIS POSSIBLE TO ESTABLISH RELATIONS WITHOUT ANY PRECONDITION WITH YEREVAN?
By Ferai Tinc

Anatolian Times, Turkey
Dec 26 2006

In an article in The Wall Street Journal, Armenian Defense Minister
Serge Sargsian called on for normalizing relations with Turkey without
any precondition, which is very pleasing. However, unfortunately,
it’s not sufficient for opening a real door of dialogue, because
Sargsian didn’t discuss the issue with all its dimensions in his
article. He wrote that neither Turks, nor Armenians will leave the
region and the logical solution to establish relations with each
other and that neighbors do it in today’s world. He added that we
can’t stay enemies forever and that we must take steps forward for our
future. It’s impossible not to agree with him. Who can object to these
words? There are very warm relations between the Turkish and Armenian
nations, aren’t there? Why wouldn’t we crown this closeness with
diplomatic relations? He wrote that this opening wouldn’t mean that
they have given up the claims on Armenian genocide and the European
Union must relate this issue with Turkey’s full membership. Even if
we leave this suggestion aside, his presentation is lacking, because
Armenia’s preconditions aren’t the only thing that matters. As long
as Azerbaijan’s invasion and the Karabagh issue continue, is this
possible to correct Armenian-Turkish relations?

What’s more, he claimed that Turkey doesn’t act constructively. This
isn’t true. Turkey is one of the founding countries of the Minsk
group which tries hard for a solution and it has been making efforts
for the solution of the problem since the very beginning. Even if a
concern on overcoming the pressure from Europe and the US is felt in
his article, this wish for peace must be taken seriously by taking
the future developments in the region into account.

Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan are three valuable neighbors for us
and important developments are expected to occur in this region. The
stability will be very important in southern Caucasia, which will feel
the effects of Turkmenistan’s president death and the harsh competition
of oil between Russia and the West. It’s vitally important not only
for Turkey, but also for the West’s interests to solve the problems
between these three countries. The region’s importance for the US’
interests appeared once more when US President George W. Bush received
Azerbaijani Ambassador to Washington Yashar Aliyev. Bush said to
Aliyev two weeks ago that the US supported Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity and that the US would try to solve the problems as soon as
possible. Meanwhile, another important development caused Yerevan
to review its policies. The EU stated that it didn’t recognize the
referendum of independence in Karabagh and told Yerevan that neither
the referendum, nor its solution would be accepted legally, before
the problem is solved. Next year, it’s possible to see the results
of approaches of the EU and the US towards the region as southern
Caucasia’s rapprochement to the West.

Problems and conflicts which would hinder this process must be
certainly solved. Although Yerevan’s call is insufficient, it’s worth
discussing it with certain creative suggestions.