CICEK SAYS TURKEY WON’T ANGER AZERBAIJAN
Today’s Zaman
April 22 2009
Turkey
Turkey will not take any steps that could be against the interests of
Azerbaijan while thawing the ice between Turkey and Armenia or any
other state, said Cemil Cicek, a government spokesperson and deputy
prime minister.
"We support overcoming our problems with our neighbors through
dialogue. We will neither take steps with Armenia nor with any other
state that would make the Azerbaijanis worry. This should be known by
everyone. We have a relationship of friendship with our Azerbaijani
brothers, different than with other states. This relationship is not
based on material gain. As we have expressed before, we are two states
but one nation," he said Monday evening after a Cabinet meeting.
Cicek refuted claims that the government is trying to make a deal with
Armenia at the expense of the Azerbaijani government, saying this is
"baseless" speculation.
"We don’t want our friendship to be overshadowed by baseless news. We
believed that the Cold War was over, but as we look at the world,
the Cold War has been continuing in an important geographical region,
the Caucasus," he added.
As the news about a possible deal for the normalization of relations
between Turkey and Armenia has spread, the Azerbaijani government has
grown uneasy about the prospects of rapprochement, fearing it will
lose key leverage in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. Turkey closed its
border and severed diplomatic ties with Armenia in 1993 in protest
of the Armenian occupation of a chunk of Azerbaijani territory during
a war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Cicek said the Turkish government has been in contact with Azerbaijan
about the developments with Armenia, informing its strategic and
ethnic ally about the process.
"Turkey has never worked behind the scenes against Azerbaijani
interests," he said, adding, "Turkey, both in bilateral talks and in
international platforms, brings the Karabakh issue to the table and
tries to contribute to the rightful case of its Azerbaijani friends."
He also said by normalizing its relations with Armenia, Turkey aims
at having peace and prosperity in the Caucasus. "This is the goal of
Turkish foreign policy. … Turkey’s Karabakh policy has not changed."
Elections in Turkish Cyprus Cicek said elections in the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) last Sunday showed that democracy
has become rooted in the island and that the year 2009 is important
for the solution of the problems on the divided island.
"We support the negotiations. We hope the result will satisfy both
sides and there will be a solution this year in line with the positions
of the presidents on both sides. We will continue to support the
process," he said. The Turkish Cypriots voted to return power to a
rightist party, the National Unity Party (UBP).
Talat has held more than 20 rounds of reunification talks with Greek
Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias since September, negotiating
a federal settlement with the Greek Cypriots. Regarding the issues
touched on last week by Chief of General Staff Gen. Ilker BaÅ~_bug in
a lengthy speech delivered at the War Academies Command in Istanbul,
Cicek said the issues would be discussed in a National Security Council
(MGK) meeting in the coming days.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
