AZERBAIJAN HAS NO INTENTIONS TO CANCEL VISA SYSTEM WITH TURKEY
Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
Aug 27 2007
Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend S.Agayeva / The Press Secretary of
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Khazar Ibrahim, said on 27 August that
the issue of canceling the visa system with Turkey is not discussed
by the Azerbaijani side and it is unlikely that the issue will be
discussed in the near future.
>From 1 August Turkey has eliminated the visa system for citizens of
Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. This
condition entails visiting Turkey for 30 days without a visa. Turkey
highlighted its intention to increase its list of countries. Turkey
reached agreements with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Saudi Arabia
and Kuwait regarding non-visa entry into its territory.
According to Ibrahim, from the point of view of international
diplomatic law, this step by Ankara is one-sided and does not have
to be reciprocated.
Earlier the Ambassador of Turkey to Azerbaijan, Huseyn Avni Karslioglu,
reported to Trend that this decision by the Turkish Government was
directed towards maximizing the potential to cross the Turkish borders
for those citizens who have a common root. "The Government of Turkey
eliminated the situation which was assessed as an obstacle. However,
we cannot oblige any country to eliminate the visa system with Turkey,"
Ambassador said.
Currently Azerbaijan applies a mutual non-visa system with Russia and
Georgia but not with Turkey. Senior officials of Azerbaijan link it
with the non-settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict.
Azerbaijani experts believe that simplifying the visa system with
Turkey will not significantly expand relations between the two
countries.