AZERI PRIVATE TV CRITICAL OF TURKEY OVER POSSIBLE OPENING OF BORDER WITH ARMENIA
ANS Television
April 5 2009
Azerbaijan
The private Azerbaijani TV channel ANS has criticized Turkey over
its attempts to improve relations with Armenia.
"Turkey has abandoned a friend like Azerbaijan and has become close
with an enemy like Yerevan, which shows that Ankara treats Baku not
as a friend but as a neighbour," ANS said in its weekly "Hesabat"
programme on 5 April.
"It emerges that Turkey is ready to open its borders with Armenia and
establish diplomatic relations with this country. We wonder whether
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict will be resolved within a short period
of time for the sake of the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish
relations. If not, we wonder for how long will Turkey wait? The time
it takes Turkey to wait will clarify one thing – whether it is a
friend or just a neighbour," ANS said.
ANS also said that Washington was putting pressure on Turkey to open
borders with Armenia in return for going back on President Barack
Obama’s pre-election promise to recognize as genocide the killings
of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915.
"If you have noticed, the talk about reconciliation between Ankara
and Yerevan has been intensifying ahead of 24 April, that is the
anniversary of the so-called Armenian genocide," ANS said. "Why is it
so? Everyone remembers that as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama
promised to recognize the so-called Armenian genocide to drum up the
support of ethnic Armenian voters. Now 24 April is approaching. This
means that Obama will be reminded of his promise. But there is a
difference between a presidential candidate and a president. So,
Obama does not absolutely want to recognize this so-called Armenian
genocide. But there is a strong Armenian diaspora in the United
States. What should one do then? Armenians should be given something
so that they do not drive Obama against the wall. What do Armenians
want? The opening of the border with Turkey. It emerges that Washington
is putting pressure on Turkey so that the border opens by 24 April. If
this happens, Obama will be allowed to forget about the promise
he made."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress