PASSPORT CRISIS SHOWS TURKEY, ARMENIA MUST BREAK MORE TABOOS

Today’s Zaman
Nov 21 2008
Turkey

President Abdullah Gul broke a taboo when he visited Armenia in
September to watch a soccer game between the national teams of the
two countries, but a Turkish professor and a former Turkish ambassador
were recently unable to go to Yerevan to attend a conference as part of
a Turkey-Armenia dialogue series because they carry special passports.

Mensur Akgun, director of the Turkish Economic and Social Studies
Foundation (TESEV), and former Ambassador Yalım Eralp were at
Ä°stanbul Ataturk Airport on Wednesday evening to take a flight
to Yerevan.

Akgun and Eralp, together with a group of about 10 people, were
to attend a conference on Friday in Yerevan called "Breaking the
Vicious Cycle," organized by TESEV and the Yerevan-based Caucasus
Institute. Atlas Jet personnel told them they cannot travel to
Armenia with the "green passports" issued to high-ranking public
servants because there are no diplomatic relations between the two
countries. Airline officials said the two passengers were free to
take the flight on their own initiative, but warned them that the
risk could cost them days at the Yerevan airport.

However, Akgun traveled to Armenia two years ago and Eralp in
2002 with the same passports. They said this must be a new rule —
"interestingly" in a period of rapprochement.

After a period of shock and panic at check-in and following thoughts
about canceling the whole trip, TESEV officials evaluated the
situation and decided that the rest of the delegation, who carry
ordinary passports, should go to Yerevan for the conference, organized
months ago as a contribution to civil society dialogue between the
two countries.

Akgun said bureaucracy usually does not follow developments occurring
in people-to-people contacts even though talks between officials
of the two countries, which have had no formal ties since 1993,
are under way to normalize relations.

"This is bureaucracy. However, it is a scandal that the issue has
not been solved for the academics who usually carry green passports,
especially when there is no political aim to their visit," he told
Today’s Zaman at the airport.

Eralp, visibly angry, was harsher: "Armenia wants rapprochement but at
the same time adopts measures to block it. There were no obstacles to
green passport holders before, but there are now. All Armenia wants
is to open the border — which it does not recognize — to relieve
its economic problems."

Turkey closed its border and severed its ties with Armenia in 1993
in protest of Armenia’s occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan.

Foreign Ministry official: No discrimination against Turkey

In Yerevan yesterday, Levon Minasyan, undersecretary of the visa
section at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Armenia passed a
new law last year concerning the rules governing foreigners visiting
Armenia.

Under the new law "If people carry ordinary passports, their visa can
be issued at the airport. But any citizen from any country carrying
a special passport should obtain a visa from the Foreign Ministry,"
he told Today’s Zaman.

He added that following the change in law, they informed Turkish
officials through the Turkish Embassy in Tbilisi and airlines operating
between the countries.

Minasyan explained that special passport holders should contact the
Armenian Foreign Ministry to inform it about the purpose of their
visit, or institutions inviting them should do so three to four days
before the visit.

"We usually issue visas for special passport holders without a problem,
but in this case we never received a request," he said.

Asked about what would have happened if Professor Akgun and Ambassador
Eralp took the flight to Yerevan, Minasyan said: "In this case we
would issue a visa."

Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Institute, said the
incident was "shameful" and this it had occurred because of a lack
of normal relations between the two countries.

"The incident demonstrates why the people of both countries need
normal relations. In the 21st century borders should be open, period."

Speaking with Foreign Ministry officials over the phone yesterday,
Iskandaryan found out that Turkey also has a similar requirement for
Armenian special passport holders.

‘Breaking the vicious cycle’

Iskandaryan will deliver the opening remarks at the conference today
without his counterpart, Akgun. Attendees will cover a range of issues,
from Armenian foreign policy to problems and prospects in relations.

Participants include Mete Hatay, working in Cyprus for the Oslo-based
PRIO Peace Institute; Ricardo Serri from the European Commission’s
Turkey team; Sabiha Å~^enyucel and Aybars Görgulu from TESEV’s
foreign policy program; Dorothée Schmid from the Institut Francais
des Relations Internationales; independent expert Masis Mayilyan;
Sergey Minasyan from the Caucasus Institute; and Karen Bekaryan from
the Armenia-based NGO European Integration.

Closing remarks will be made by Armenian Ambassador David Hovhannesyan
without Ambassador Eralp.

–Boundary_(ID_iS+qtF4LBK7GpqqMAliv7g)–