ERDOGAN AGAIN LINKS TURKISH-ARMENIAN TIES TO KARABAKH DEAL

_4/10/2009_1
Thursday, April 9, 2009

ANKARA (Combined Sources)–A deal between Armenian and Turkey which
would normalize relations and reopen borders will have to wait until
Armenia and Azerbaijan first settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference
late on Wednesday.

"The Azerbaijan-Armenian dispute should be resolved first. Then,
problems between Turkey and Armenia can be solved, too," Erdogan told
a news conference late on Wednesday.

Erdogan’s remarks come amid growing pressure from Azerbaijan, which
has been increasingly vocal in its opposition to the opening of the
Turkish Armenian border.

"We hope the U.N. Security Council takes a decision naming Armenia
as occupier in Nagorno-Karabakh and calling for a withdrawal from
the region. This is a process the Minsk Group… could not succeed
in for 17 years. We hope this trio will accomplish that," he said,
according to Reuters news agency.

The OSCE Minsk group — set up in 1992 and co-chaired by Russia, the
United States and France — is seeking a solution to Nagorno-Karabakh,
one of the most intractable conflicts arising from the Soviet Union’s
collapse. There has been no progress.

Erdogan said Ankara had already taken a step and proposed to form the
Caucasian Stability and Cooperation Platform with the participation
of Turkey, Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

A Karabakh settlement was until recently one of Turkey’s main
preconditions for establishing diplomatic relations and reopening
its border with Armenia which it had closed in 1993 out of solidarity
with Azerbaijan.

Turkey had also hinged relations on an end to international efforts
to recognize the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish government appeared
ready to drop that linkage when it embarked on an unprecedented
dialogue with Yerevan last year.

After months of intensive negotiations the two sides have come close
to normalizing bilateral ties. Recent reports in the Turkish and
Western press said a relevant Turkish-Armenian agreement could be
signed this month.

However, Erdogan poured cold water on those reports late last week
when he stated that Turkey cannot reach a "healthy solution concerning
Armenia" as long as the Karabakh conflict remains unresolved. Armenian
Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian denounced the statement as an
attempt to scuttle the Turkish-Armenian dialogue. It is not clear
if Nalbandian raised the matter with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali
Babacan when he visited Istanbul earlier this week.

The two ministers held a brief meeting there with U.S. President
Barack Obama, who pressed Ankara and Yerevan to complete talks aimed
at restoring diplomatic ties between the two neighbors during a two-day
visit to Turkey. Obama also stressed the importance of Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation, a major U.S. policy goal in the region, in an ensuing
phone conversation with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Senior Azerbaijani officials have expressed serious concern at
the possible breakthrough in Turkish-Armenian ties, saying that it
would weaken Baku’s position in the Karabakh conflict. "It would be
painfully damaging to the Turkey-Azerbaijan brotherhood and to the
ideas of Turkic solidarity," the political parties represented in
Azerbaijan’s parliament said this week in a statement reported by
the APA news agency.

"With its policy [Turkey’s governing] Justice and Development Party
is stabbing Azerbaijan in the back," Vahid Ahmedov, a pro-government
member of the parliament, was reported to say on Wednesday.

The Turkish newspaper "Today’s Zaman" reported on Thursday that
Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul will visit Baku soon to discuss the
Azerbaijani concerns with Aliev. Citing an unnamed Turkish government
official, the paper said that the Turkish-Armenian border will likely
remain closed at least until October. "Ankara will use the time until
November to ease Azerbaijan’s concerns," it said.

In Armenia, meanwhile, there are growing calls for official Yerevan
to halt negotiations with Ankara if they do not lead to an agreement
soon. "If Turkey suddenly succumbs to Azerbaijan’s threats and these
negotiations yield no results soon, then I think the Armenian side
will not carry on with them," Giro Manoyan, a senior member of the
influential Armenian Revolutionary Federation, told reporters on
Wednesday. "The negotiations can be deemed failed if they don’t
produce quick results."

Manoyan called on the Armenian foreign ministry to be more vocal in
expressing Armenia’s official position, adding that Armenia’s silence
has allowed Turkey to speak on its behalf.

Former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian took a similar view in an
interview with RFE/RL earlier this week. "I believe the ball is on the
Turkish court today," he said. "Turkey should overcome its dilemma and
open the border. Or else, Armenia should call a halt to this process."

Any agreement between Turkey and Armenia on normalizing relations
cannot come at the expense of future generations or the Armenian
nation’s collective national interests, said ARF Bureau member
Dr. Viken Hovsepian Monday during a live interview on Horizon 180
on Monday.

"It is unacceptable for us that any agreement–be that the border
opening or normalizing relations–contain concessions that will impact
future generations," said Hovsepian.

Hurriyet revealed late Thursday that Azerbaijan had sent an envoy to
Ankara with a set of demands Yerevan must meet before Baku gives its
consent for the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border.

The preconditions require Armenia to cede control of the liberated
districts surrounding the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and allow for
the creation of a Turkish-Azeri land corridor through the southern
part of the strategic region of Kashatagh (Lachin), linking Armenia
and Karabakh.