ERDOGAN’S PECULIAR GAMES
Information-Analytic Agency NEWS.am
Sept 22 2009
Armenia
The other day Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan organized a
peculiar game to make the impression that the Turkish Government is
going to drift away from the policy of normalizing its relations with
Armenia. This was done by means of statements apparently designed to
provoke official Yerevan’s negative reaction.
Specifically, at his meeting with the managers of local media outlets
late last week, the Turkish Premier ruled out the reopening of the
Armenian-Turkish border before the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been
settled. Recep Erdogan must have meant the signing of a framework
agreement between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents. So
the Turkish leaders are making one more attempt to link the
Armenian-Turkish rapprochement to the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process
despite international mediators’ repeated statements that the two
processes are simultaneous, but independent of each other.
To our delight, RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan gave a rapid and
clear response this time. It was for the first time since "football
diplomacy" was launched that he had warned the Turkish authorities that
the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement might be wrecked. "If the Turkish
leaders have problems with signing the documents, they must not try
to resolve them in defiance of the spirit, letter and purposes of the
initialed documents," the Armenian Foreign Minister said, commenting
on his Turkish counterpart’s statement.
The Turkish leaders do have problems, indeed. On the one hand,
Baku’s incessant howl, which makes top-ranking Turkish officials
declare their love to their "younger brother." On the other hand,
the pressure on the part of the Turkish Opposition, which is widely
represented in Parliament and, if supported by some members of
the ruling party, capable of torpedoing the ratification of the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols. However, the picture does not seem
to be so clear in the context of the recent steps made by Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. In this delicate situation, when
the large parliamentary factions are not inclined to vote for the
ratification of the Protocols, Minister Davudoglu was supposedly to
exert efforts to diminish their influence on public opinion. However,
quite the opposite is taking place during the political consultations
in Turkey: the Foreign Minister is holding meetings with the leaders
of all small parties that received at least 1% of votes at the recent
parliamentary elections. All this despite the fact that the political
"dwarfs" were expected to pronounce against normalizing relations with
Armenia in the hope of reaping political dividends. As a result, Ahmet
Davudoglu’s praiseworthy initiative to make the domestic political
consultations as open as possible produces an impression that most
of the ruling elite representatives disagree with the Protocols.
What is the reason? One may arrive at the following two conclusions:
the Turkish leaders hoped for the Armenian public to torpedo the
process, as they did not expect a calm, and even positive, response
in Armenia; official Ankara simulates serious opposition to the final
signing of the Protocols for the purpose of reducing the influence of
the Armenian forces that object to the documents but remain inactive,
as they hope the Turkish Parliament will vote them down. Anyway, the
Turkish authorities’ behavior adds to tension in the Armenian-Turkish
rapprochement process, which may prove to be irreparably damaged.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
