TURKISH SPEAKER SAYS RELATIONS WITH AZERBAIJAN CANNOT BE HARMED

Hurriyet
April 15 2009
Turkey

ISTANBUL – The Turkish parliament speaker said on Wednesday relations
between Ankara and Baku could not be harmed after meeting a group of
female Azerbaijani parliamentarians.

"One million Karabakh people will be displaced and will try to survive,
and we will open the border gate with Armenia. Such a thing cannot
happen," Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan was quoted by the Anatolian
Agency as saying following his meeting with the Azeri parliaments.

Turkey’s border with Yerevan was closed in 1993 over Armenia’s invasion
of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory.

The two countries have no diplomatic relations; however, Ankara and
Yerevan have been engaged in a normalization process that includes
reopening the border, since Gul paid a landmark visit to Armenia
last year to watch a World Cup qualifying football match between the
countries’ national teams.

"Discussing all problems with Armenia, one of which is Karabakh,
does not cause any weakness in Turkish-Azerbaijani relations, and
it does not mean that Turkey is making concessions of its policies
regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh issue," Toptan also said.

He said Turkey’s views were very clear and obvious, and said nobody
knew when those discussions would be completed, or whether or not
they would bear positive results.

Toptan added that Turkey would never give up Azerbaijan, and two
countries should join forces and move forward together.

Occupation must end first

Azerbaijani lawmaker Genire Pasayeva said the border crossing with
Armenia could not be opened before the invasion of Azerbaijani
territories ended.

"We are not telling to keep the borders closed, but we are saying that
Armenia should withdraw from our territories and recognize Turkey’s
territorial integrity," Anatolian Agency also quoted her as saying.

Azeri officials have expressed concern over the prospect of the border
being reopened and some media reports suggested that Baku might even
go one step further in halting the sale of natural gas to Turkey.

Azerbaijan, which has strong cultural and historic ties with Turkey,
says opening the border before the withdrawal of Armenian troops
from the country’s occupied territories would run counter to its
national interests.

In a bid to soothe Azerbaijan’s concerns, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan has said the deadlock over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave must
be resolved before Turkey and Armenia strike a deal.