POLITICS BEHIND KARABAKH VISA DENIAL FOR JOURNALISTS
Today’s Zaman
May 28 2009
Turkey
Masis Mayilian, former deputy foreign minister of Nagorno-Karabakh,
has said the recent denial of visas for Turkish journalists hoping
to travel to Karabakh was connected to Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayip Erdogan’s recent speech at the Azerbaijani parliament in which
he said the normalization of relations with Armenia was contingent
on the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
"I directly asked the [Armenian] Foreign Ministry about the issue,
and this is the response they gave me. I am personally opposed
placing obstacles in front of journalists," he told Today’s Zaman
at the Turkey-Armenia Relations Workshop organized by the Foundation
for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA).
Last week 10 journalists who were in Armenia for the Turkey-Armenia
Journalist Dialogue Project, organized by the International Hrant Dink
Foundation, attempted to get visas to go to Karabakh on May 23 and
24. But after receiving initial approval from Karabakh, the journalists
later received a last-minute response from the Karabakh authority in
Yerevan denying them authorization to visit the region. Aris Nalcı,
who submitted the visa applications on behalf of the journalists,
said he was not given an explanation for the denial.
Mayilian, who is president of the Public Council for Foreign and
Security Policy based in Karabakh, said he hoped the journalists
would try once again to visit the region.
In Baku Erdogan had said there would be no normalization in ties with
Armenia unless Armenia withdrew from Nagorno-Karabakh. The statement
pleased Azerbaijan but drew ire from Armenia, which said Turkey should
not interfere in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute and warned that such
moves by Ankara would harm efforts to resolve the deep-seated conflict.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity
with Azerbaijan after Armenia invaded Nagorno-Karabakh and seven
regions adjacent to it. Armenian withdrawal from Azerbaijani territory
was a condition for normal ties with Yerevan, but the conditionality
was apparently softened when Turkish and Armenian diplomats started
closed-door talks to normalize ties one-and-a-half years ago. Last
month, they announced that they had reached a framework agreement on
restoring their ties, sparking protests from Azerbaijan.