Compiled from
Yeni Azarbaycan, Azerbaijan
Azadliq, Azerbaijan
Yeni Musavat, Azerbaijan
Zerkalo, Azerbaijan
Sept 5 2008
Azeri press offers differing views on Turkish leader’s planned visit
to Armenia
The Azerbaijani ruling party’s newspaper Yeni Azarbaycan has harshly
criticized Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s planned visit on 6
September to Armenia to watch a football game between the Turkish and
Armenian national teams.
"Gul, president of Turkey which is the closest friend of Azerbaijan
and its strategic partner, will visit an enemy country, Armenia, which
has territorial claims to both our country and Turkey and which
murders people, having forgotten the fundamental principles ‘One
nation – two countries’ and ‘Azerbaijan’s grief is our grief and its
joy is our joy’ which describe our historical relationship," Yeni
Azarbaycan said on 5 September. "It does not matter whether Gul will
meet government officials or watch a football game in Yerevan. What is
important is that in this way Turkey will stab its friend in the
back. It will not matter whether this step is explained and linked
with enforcement rules required by the globalizing world, pressure by
an Anglo-Saxon-Jewish alliance that is trying to dictate a unipolar
world order or Russian propaganda."
The paper also recalled that Abdullah Gul himself criticized the then
Turkish President Suleyman Demirel in 1993 over the visit to Ankara of
former Armenian President Ter-Petrosyan.
"Although 15 years have passed since then, nothing has changed. But
Gul is going to Yerevan to watch a football match," Yeni Azarbaycan
said.
The opposition Azadliq newspaper said that despite criticism of Gul’s
planned visit in Azerbaijan, the Baku government welcomed the move.
Commenting on the stance of the Azerbaijani authorities, the deputy
chairman of the People’s Front of Azerbaijan Party, Nuraddin Mammadli,
told Azadliq that the Baku government had coordinated its reaction
with Ankara.
"Because the Azerbaijani government has reached a critical point due
to the recent developments in the region and it does not need another
headache with Turkey," Mammadli said. "On the other hand, the
Azerbaijani government has no levers to influence the current
processes between Turkey and Armenia. Turkey has been taking the
latest steps with the EU’s consent."
In the meantime, the leader of the opposition Musavat party, Isa
Qambar, said that Azerbaijan should trust Turkey.
"I believe that we should be able to trust Turkey and rely on it,"
Qambar said in an extensive interview with Yeni Musavat newspaper on 5
September. "I am confident that Turkey is a country that seriously
understands that it is responsible for the fate of both the Turkish
people and Turkic nations and Turkic republics."
Qambar also said that if Azerbaijan wants Turkey to become a mediator
in the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict over Nagornyy Karabakh, it should
accept contacts between Ankara and Yerevan.
Independent Zerkalo newspaper said that Azerbaijan should not
dramatize the forthcoming talks between Armenia and Turkey and wait
for their outcome. "The opening of borders between Turkey and Armenia
will lead to the creation of qualitatively new relations at a new
level in the South Caucasus," the paper added.
[translated from Azeri]