BABACAN: WE WANT TURKEY, ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN TO WIN

Today’s Zaman
April 16 2009
Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan has said Turkey sees relations
between it and Armenia from a broad perspective and that Ankara is
looking for a solution in which Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan will
all be winners.

"As Turkey, we want a solution in which everybody is a winner. We
want Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan to win," he said on his way to
the 20th Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Foreign Ministers
Council in Yerevan yesterday.

He also said Turkey is seeking "comprehensive and complete
normalization."

"We don’t say, ‘Let’s first solve one problem and solve the other
later.’ We want a similar process to start between Azerbaijan and
Armenia. We are closely watching the talks between Azerbaijan and
Armenia," he added.

Turkish and Armenian officials have been attempting to create
a formula for normalizing relations between their countries, but
Armenia’s dispute with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh looms in the
background as a potential deal breaker.

Azerbaijan, Turkey’s strategic and ethnic ally, has been uneasy with
prospects of a rapprochement between Ankara and Yerevan, fearing
it will lose key leverage in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute if Turkey
opens its border and restarts diplomatic ties with Armenia. Ankara
has previously said normalization with Armenia is contingent on a
resolution in the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, which has been under
Armenian occupation since 1991.

A high-level diplomatic source said, "Turkey cares about Azerbaijan’s
problems at least as much as the Azerbaijanis themselves." The two
countries have long boasted of their relationship as exemplary,
describing themselves as "one nation with two states" to highlight
their ethnic and strategic ties.

Azerbaijan’s concerns have been fueled by media reports indicating that
Turkey and Armenia could reach a deal to open their border as early as
this month. But Turkish officials, dismissing such reports, have said
the Turkish-Armenian border could be opened in October, when Armenian
President Serzh Sarksyan is due to visit Turkey to watch a World Cup
qualifying match between the national teams of the two countries.

Sources say Ankara will use the time until then to ease Azerbaijan’s
concerns and insist on progress in international efforts for the
resolution on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue before proceeding with efforts
to normalize ties with Armenia, even though Armenia rejects any link
between the issues.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said yesterday at a BSEC
press conference, "Turkey and Armenia have gone a long way toward
opening the Turkey-Armenia border, and they will come closer to
opening it soon." He said there had been no agreement yet between
the two sides regarding opening of the border.

Asked about the potential opening of the Turkish-Armenian border,
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad Guliev said the solution
to the two countries’ problems should be tied to the solution of the
dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Nalbandian, on the other hand, said the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute is
being handled through the Minsk Group, created to find a solution
to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 1992 and co-chaired by Russia, the
United States and France.

Asked if Azerbaijan has reservations about Turkey’s ongoing talks
with Armenia, Guliev said Azerbaijanis believe Turkey will protect
their interests.

Just as there is ongoing dialogue between Turkey and Armenia,
there is also a parallel and ongoing process between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. Sarksyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have met
three times over the last year.

Yesterday Babacan met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Guliev before leaving Yerevan. He
also had talks with Sarksyan and Nalbandian.

Meanwhile, Russian officials expressed a desire for better neighborly
relations between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Through a statement
from their embassy in Ankara, Russian officials said, "Russia has been
astonished to see media reports about Russia attempting to persuade
Baku that normalization of relations between Ankara and Yerevan is
aimed at marginalizing Baku." Russian officials said these allegations
are baseless and that they have not changed their foreign policy of
promoting stability and peace in the region.

Black Sea highway agreement approved Meanwhile, the Turkish
Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee approved the "Agreement
to Improve the Black Sea Highway" yesterday. At the deliberations
in Parliament the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)
expressed concern that the highway runs through Yerevan and requested
a map. Officials said that there has been no map drawn yet and that
they are only dealing with the area within the borders of Turkey.