Turkish Press
March 16 2007
A Careful Policy Is Necessity
Published: 3/16/2007
BY ALI SIRMEN
CUMHURIYET- The restored Armenian Akdamar Church in Van will open
next week. In addition to the regular flights between Yerevan and
Istanbul, a Yerevan-Van route was started to facilitate guests coming
from Armenia for the opening ceremony, and this lead to debates. The
General Staff raised concerns over the issue. Foreign Ministry
spokesman Levent Bilman said that they hadn’t been informed.
Meanwhile, government circles are staying silent. Firstly, I would
like to stress that restoring and opening this church is a positive
initiative but that more careful relations are needed between Turkey
and Armenia, and I agree with those who disapprove of the Van-Yerevan
direct flights. When I was talking about this issue recently with
retired Ambassador Sukru Elekdag, he emphasized certain points about
the issue. In light of this, it should be mentioned once again Ankara
should be very careful in its relations with Yerevan.
The Turkish Republic was one of the first countries to recognize
Armenia two days before the US, which declared its independence after
the breakup of the Soviet Union, on Dec. 16, 1991. Then Prime
Minister Suleyman Demirel indicated in a message he sent on Dec. 24,
that this recognition was conditional on Armenia having friendly
relations with its neighbors. At that time, Armenia was being
governed by Ter Petrosian, who foresaw good relations with Turkey and
stressed the future over the past. However, Tashnaks drove the
moderate Petrosian out and made a fanatical policy dominant in
Armenia. Turkish-Armenian relations started to worsen, and Ankara
closed its borders in 1993 and air-space to Armenia the next year. In
its declaration of independence of Dec. 23, 1990, Armenia showed
certain parts of Anatolia within the border of western Armenia, and
it states in its Constitution that Mt. Ararat the symbol of Armenia.
Now Armenia is putting pressure on Turkey through foreign capitals to
recognize the so-called Armenian genocide and also trying to make
Turkey open its border gates. In addition, Armenia’s policy of
seeking Greater Armenia is still being pushed. Under this policy,
firstly the so-called genocide will be recognized and compensation
and territorial claims against Turkey will follow.
Armenia is successfully following its policy against Turkey. The
so-called genocide was recognized in many countries, and it started
normal flights by putting pressure on Turkey and it delivers food
through Turkey via 4,000 tractor trailers. In addition, 70,000
Armenian citizens are currently working in Turkey illegally, because
officials are overlooking this. In other words, while Turkey is
following a hostile policy against Turkey, it’s also mobilizing
Western countries and overpowering Turkey’s possibilities to put
pressure on it. In short, Yerevan thinks that no matter what Turkey
does, there will be no consequences for it. But Turkey can put great
pressure on Armenia. Here, in an atmosphere in which a policy that
responds to Turkey’s national interests is needed, people and writers
favor opening our border gates with Armenia and becoming friends with
Yerevan in a way to isolate Azerbaijan. It’s hard to understand this.