SHOULD ARMENIAN LEADER VISIT TURKEY? SITUATION AS SEEN FROM STEPANAKERT

Information-Analytic Agency NEWS.am
Aug 27 2009
Armenia

NEWS.am continues publishing a series of comments on the advisability
of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to Turkey. The Armenian
leader is to return his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul’s visit
to Armenia. However, pressured by Azerbaijan, Turkey started setting
preconditions for normalizing its relations with Armenia, particularly,
the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

In his turn, the Armenian leader stated he would visit Turkey provided
the Armenian-Turkish border was reopened or a relevant process was
under way.

Below are Nagorno-Karabakh experts’ opinions of the situation.

Talking to NEWS.am, Vahram Atanesyan, Chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, NKR Parliament, said that "Turkey is not viewing the problem
in the context of the present situation." According to him, official
Ankara believes the reopening of the Armenian-Turkish border to be
such a vital issue for Armenia that the country will be ready for
major concessions. However, Turkey should have put up with the fact
that the Azerbaijan-dictated policy of "bringing Armenia to its knees"
proved ineffective and "indecent of a country seeking EU membership."

Atanesyan believes that reopening the borders and establishing
diplomatic relations "is only a starting point for both countries
seeking to normalize their relations, and the Turkish side is
presenting it as an epoch-making event," and its "counterproductive"
attitude to the process is evidence thereof.

"Of importance is also the factor of Azerbaijan’s opposition,
which is evidence of Turkey, and especially Azerbaijan, being
failure-states. Both the states are unable to normalize their
relations with Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, to say nothing of the
Armenian people. However, this situation cannot be an everlasting one,"
Atanesyan said. He pointed out that, to have influence on the South
Caucasus, Turkey has to normalize relations with Armenia. One has the
impression that too little time remains before the return visit for
the process to show any essential progress or at least any prospects
for it. "I do no think President Serzh Sargsyan will visit Turkey,
it is desirable that the visit take place though."

Speaking of the Armenian President’s possible visit to Turkey, the
former deputy foreign minister of NKR Masis Mailyan pointed out that
the Ankara-Yerevan relations are not so good "for a top-level visit
to Turkey to be considered necessary."

According to him, "the international PR over the normalization of
bilateral relations is still working in Turkey’s favor." "Specifically,
Turkish diplomats succeeded in neutralizing the threat of the United
States recognizing the Armenian Genocide this April. The public
Armenian-Turkish dialogue, as well as Ankara’s appeals to other
countries for not interfering in the process, proved to be the most
substantial argument," Mailyan said.

Good neighborly relations should be established, but "it is advisable
now to work at a different level… Nagorno-Karabakh does not fully
trust Turkey’s initiatives."

Mailyan stressed that Ankara’s practical steps can prove the sincerity
of Turkey’s intentions to normalize relations with Armenia: giving
up the demand for Armenian territorial concessions to Azerbaijan;
establishing diplomatic relations with Armenia and reopening the land
border. "The steps are supposed to show us who we are dealing with:
a country, which is still guided by the Pan-Turkism doctrine or with
a modern-day Turkey, which is seeking EU membership and accepting
the EU’s system of values," Mailyan said.
From: Baghdasarian