OSKANIAN SAYS ARMENIA-TURKEY RELATIONS MAY GET WORSE
says-armenia-turkey-relations-may-get-worse/
May 21st, 2009
YEREVAN-Armenia’s longtime former Foreign Minister, Vartan Oskanian,
has said Turkey and Armenia will not be able to make progress in their
efforts to normalize relations if Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan continues to bring the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the table,
the Turkish Today’s Zaman newspaper reported on Thursday.
Oskanian’s remarks came during a discussion with a group of Turkish
journalists who are in Yerevan this week participating in the
International Hrant Dink Foundation’s Turkey-Armenia Journalist
Dialogue Project.
Speaking to the journalists, Oskanian warned that Ankara could make
relations with Armenia even worse if Turkish officials continue to
politicize the negotiations.
"The moment we leave Karabakh out, we can improve Turkish-Armenian
relations. If we bring Karabakh in, I really don’t see this
happening. Karabakh is a separate issue," Oskanian was quoted by Zaman
as saying. "My conviction is that if Turkey normalizes its relations
with Armenia first, then the Karabakh solution will be much easier."
Oskanian said the Turkish Prime Minister began bringing the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the forefront of Turkey’s negotiations
with Armenia three months ago.
"Until that time, I was really hoping that there was a change of
policy on the part of Turkey and we would get results," he said.
Visiting Baku last week, Erdogan reaffirmed his government’s intention
to link the two issues. "Occupation of Karabakh is the cause here
and closing of the border is the effect. It is impossible for us to
open the border unless that occupation ends," he told a joint press
conference in Baku with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
Turkey, a non-actor in the Karabakh conflict, has been seeking to boost
its role in the peace process by conditioning its own negotiations
with Armenia to a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict being
mediated by the US, France and Russia through the OSCE Minsk Group.
The French co-chair of the group, Bernard Fassier, on Monday warned
Ankara to drop efforts to link the two unrelated issues. He said
that linking the Karabakh peace process with the normalization of
Armenia-Turkish relations can jeopardize the new momentum in the
Karabakh talks.
Armenia’s Government has also criticized Erdogan for the statements,
saying they could hamper both processes.
Oskanian reiterated those warnings, stressing also that Erdogan’s
threats to Armenians deport Armenians working in Turkey were also
not helpful to fence-mending efforts between the two countries.
"I am beginning to be concerned that not only will Turkish-Armenian
relations not improve, but they may even get worse," said Oskanian,
who founded the Yerevan-based Civilitas Foundation late last year to
advocate peace and stability in the Caucasus.