PUBLIC TALKS ‘PUT CONSENSUS AT RISK’

Hurriyet
April 20 2009
Turkey

A former Armenian foreign minister criticizes the Armenian president
for the country’s reconciliation talks with Turkey. ‘The new
government’s style is different for normalizing ties. Ours was
confidential, theirs is public,’ says veteran politician Vartan
Oskanian

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian has been criticized by former
Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian for making public the
progress of secret reconciliation talks with Turkey.

"Presidents cut ribbons and then do formalities. But if you start
formalities when the substance does not match what you project, you
get yourself into difficulty," he said. Oskanian warned his successors
that Turkey benefited from this exposure, not Armenia.

A veteran politician, who served as the country’s foreign minister for
10 years and conducted similar secretive meetings with his Turkish
counterparts, deciphered today’s talks to the Hurriyet Daily News &
Economic Review in Yerevan on Saturday.

"We are where we were. Abdullah Gul’s visit to Armenia last September
was a formality. As long as the border remains closed and there
are no diplomatic ties, that visit although historic, is still a
formality. Things can only change when the border is opened and
ties are established. Then the formality can transform to pragmatic
diplomatic steps," he said.

Recalling his own experience with Turkey, he argued that the
only way to test whether Ankara was genuine was to engage them
confidentially. "The new government continues the process of
normalizing ties with the same intentions but the style is
different. Ours was confidential, theirs is public. We will see
which one succeeds but I still think that confidentiality should
have been maintained, at least until the agreement is initialized,"
Oskanian added.

When you raise expectations and give publicity to the process of
starting dialogue with, you also attract the attention of third-party
countries, Oskanian said. "This is fine if both sides, and in this
case particularly Turkey, are genuine about opening the border. But
if Turkey is reluctant to do so, then these raised expectations only
serve Turkish interest," he said.

According to Oskanian, even if there is no deal in the end it is
beneficial for Turkey to show the world that there is a discussion on a
committee of historians to study 1915 events. "By this, Turks can tell
Americans and others to stay out of the ‘genocide’ issue," he argued.

The history of Nagorno-Karabakh: A bloody war The issue of
Nagorno-Karabakh goes back to the conflict from February 1988 to
May 1994, in the small ethnic enclave in southwestern Azerbaijan,
between local ethnic Armenians backed by Yerevan against the state of
Azerbaijan. Both countries were formerly part of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics.

The enclave’s parliament had voted in favor of uniting itself with
Armenia and a referendum was held with the vast majority of the
Karabakh population voting in favor of independence. Ethnic violence
broke out within the statelet after the autonomous parliament voted
for Nagorno-Karabakh to be reunited with Armenia in 1988. Full-scale
fighting erupted in the late winter of 1992. In the spring of 1993,
Armenian forces captured regions outside the enclave itself, and by
the end of the war in 1994, the Armenians were in full control of
most of the enclave and also held and currently control approximately
9 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory outside the area.

Sluggish peace talks As many as 230,000 Armenians from Azerbaijan and
800,000 Azerbaijanis from Armenia and Karabakh have been displaced
as a result of the conflict.

A Russian-brokered ceasefire was signed in May 1994 and sluggish
peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been going ever since.

Armenia-Turkey border also has been closed since 1993.