TURKISH PREMIER RULES OUT DISAGREEMENTS WITH AZERBAIJAN

Turan News Agency
May 13 2009
Azerbaijan

Baku, 13 May: There cannot be any disagreements between Turkey and
Azerbaijan because the relations between the two countries are based
on the principle – one nation, two states. Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this addressing members of the Azerbaijani
parliament.

"Not only the present day, but also history unites us. Turkish
soldiers who fought for Azerbaijan’s independence are buried in
Baku. The founder of the Azerbaijani state, Mammad Amin Rasulzada,
is buried in Ankara," Erdogan said.

In his opinion there should be complete trust between the two
countries and there is no place for provocations of "opponents of
the fraternity" of Azerbaijan and Turkey. Touching upon the cooling
in bilateral relations over the past months, Erdogan said that it
had been caused by a report on an Armenian website which said that
Turkey decided to sacrifice Azerbaijan’s interests in Karabakh for
improvement in its relations with Armenia.

"After that I repeatedly denied this in [Turkey’s] parliament and
during some international events. However, some used these insinuations
for an anti-Turkish campaign," Erdogan said.

He said that Ankara had informed, through its Foreign Ministry,
official Baku about the course of the negotiations with Armenia.

He stressed that [Turkey’s] border with Armenia was closed after the
occupation of Azerbaijani territories. He said that the border would
not be open until the territories were liberated.

He added that even during US President Barack Obama’s visit to Turkey,
official Ankara brought to the foreground the Karabakh conflict,
not bilateral relations between Ankara and Washington.

"Turkey has never done anything to the detriment of Azerbaijan’s
interests and it will never do so," Erdogan said.

Erdogan’s speech was emotional and contained references to the classics
of Azerbaijani and Turkish literature. He cited the national anthems
of the two countries.

Erdogan’s speech was interrupted with applauds, and in the end, he
received an ovation from the audience that was very recently accusing
the Turkish government of betrayal.

Erdogan’s speech had a very important point where he mentioned Mammad
Amin Rasulzada, not Heydar Aliyev as the founder of the Azerbaijani
state.