Erdogan must explain
-24-erdogan-must-explain
Published: Thursday September 24, 2009
Speaking to the executive editors of Turkish newspapers on September
17, Turkey’s Prime Mininster Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it was
"impossible" for Turkey to open the border with Armenia without the
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Milliyet and TRT reported
the next day.
We do not know whether the editors were surprised by the
statement. But we do know that Mr. Erdogan’s government has initialed
an agreement with Armenia under which it has committed to open the
border two months after the agreement is ratified. There is no mention
of Karabakh in the document.
So does he intend to open the border, as promised, or does he not?
Speaking at Princeton University this week, Mr. Erdogan announced that
he would take the agreement with Armenia to the Turkish Grand National
Assembly for ratification on October 10-11 (a Saturday and Sunday!) He
said he expected the parliament to ratify.
Which will it be Mr. Erdogan? Open or closed?
Mr. Erdogan’s reported statement on September 17 was consistent with
Turkey’s position ever since it first closed the border with Armenia
16 years ago. When he repeated this position in April 2009 and
thereafter, it raised serious concerns about his government’s
commitment to the normalization of relations with Armenia.
President Serge Sargsian rightly told the Wall Street Journal at the
time that Mr. Erdogan’s statement indicated "the motivation of Turkey"
to normalize relations with Armenia "has decreased."
But it looked as though the motivation of Turkey had increased again;
the foreign ministries of Armenia and Turkey agreed to announce on
August 31 that protocols on bilateral relations had been
initialed. They would be signed by mid-October and sent to the
parliaments of the two countries for ratification.
It seemed that perhaps good judgment had prevailed. Perhaps
Mr. Erdogan had appreciated the importance of normal relations with
neighbors. Perhaps his government had faced the fact that their
attempt to starve Armenians into submission in Karabakh had
failed. Perhaps he understood it was not helpful to allow Azerbaijan’s
relationship with Armenia to determine the nature of Turkey’s
relationship with Armenia.
And then this.
Mr. Erdogan owes Armenia and the world an explanation. The Turkish
press, the U.S. press, and the United States State Department should
join the Armenian government in asking, "Which shall we believe? Your
written commitments or your verbal comments?"
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
