AZERI FM SAYS GUL’S VISIT TO YEREVAN DOMESTIC MATTER, MPS CRITICIZE
Hurriye
Sept 5 2008
Turkey
Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s upcoming visit to Yerevan to watch
a football game between Turkey and Armenia is "Turkey’s domestic
matter," Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov said on
Thursday. Some Azeri MPs criticized Gul’s move, saying the visit
would be wrong. (UPDATED)
It is out of question for Azerbaijan to interfere in this matter,
Mammadyarov told reporters in Baku.
"We welcome this initiative positively," he also said when asked
about Turkey’s proposed "Caucasus Security and Stability Platform".
The Turkish president will watch a World Cup qualifying game between
the Turkish and Armenian national teams together with his Armenian
counterpart Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan in Saturday’s historical visit.
Sargsyan invited Gul last month to attend the qualifying match for the
2010 World Cup finals to mark "a new symbolic start in the countries’
relations".
Turkey is among the first countries that recognized Armenia when it
declared its independency. However there are no diplomatic relations
between the two countries, as Armenia presses the international
community to admit the so-called "genocide" claims instead of accepting
Turkey’s call to investigate the allegations, and its invasion of
20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, despite U.N. Security Council
resolutions on the issue.
Several high-level bureaucrats, as well as Turkish and foreign
journalists, are expected to accompany Gul during his visit.
Gul and Sargsian will hold a scheduled one-hour meeting at the
Presidential Palace ahead of the match. The Turkish president will
return to Turkey after watching the game.
CRITICISM FROM AZERI MPs Some Azerbaijani MPs criticized the Turkish
president’s visit to Yerevan, saying the visit would be wrong.
The establishment of relations between Turkey and Armenia was not
realized with Turkey’s own will, an Azerbaijani opposition leader
said, adding it was a result of pressure from the European Union,
the United States and some other countries.
The visit could cause problems for Azerbaijan, Sabir Rustamkhanli,
chairman of the Citizen Solidarity Party (CSP) and chairman of the
Congress of World Azerbaijanis (CWA) was quoted by Anatolian Agency
as saying.
EU ALSO WELCOMES The Presidency of the Council of the European Union
also welcomed the Gul’s decision and said the trip was a strong and
encouraging sign for relations between Armenia and Turkey on Thursday.
"The Presidency hopes that this historic and highly symbolic visit
will foster a climate favourable to the normalisation of relations
between the two countries, to which it looks forward," the presidency
said in a statement.