TRENDS – TURKEY AND AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA
Milaz.info
id=4580
Oct 19 2009
Azerbaijan
Turkey and Azerbaijan have recently found themselves at loggerheads
over Turkish-Armenian border issue.
Azerbaijan says Turkey’s moves to normalize relations with Armenia
have already marred negotiations between Baku and Yerevan.
Armenia occupied Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized area
of Nagorno Karabakh, and several adjacent regions in 1993. In
contravention to the UN Security Council resolutions and international
documents on unconditional withdrawal of invading troops from Azeri
lands, Armenia still keeps lands under illegal occupation. 15 years
of international mediation have failed to end the territorial conflict.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support
for Azerbaijan, following the Nagorno Karabakh war which left 20%
of Azerbaijan’s lands occupied and over one million as refugees and
internally displaced persons.
Brokered by the OSCE Minsk Group, Azerbaijan and Armenia have held
negotiations on the settlement of the conflict but the recent meeting
between Azeri and Armenian presidents in Chisinau was affected by
the Turkey-Armenia attempts to open shared borders.
Referring to Turkey-Armenia reconciliation efforts, Azeri President
Ilham Aliyev said the recent events in the region may have inspired
Armenia.
Azerbaijan’s government wants Armenia to withdraw troops from
Nagorno-Karabakh and return land.
On the pretext of FIFA ban, Turkish police didn’t allow football fans
to take Azeri flag to the stadium while Azerbaijan knew the fact that
there was no FIFA decision and Turkey just wanted to please Armenia
during the match.
Besides, deep-rooted fraternal relations between Azerbaijan and
Turkey were also damaged when TVs showed Azeri flag seized from
fans in a trash can in Turkish city of Bursa during Armenian-Turkey
football match.
The flag in trash bin angered Azerbaijan, and harmed brotherly
relations.
Azerbaijan also protested Turkish TV campaigns for the re-opening of
borders with Armenia.
Although Azerbaijan and Turkey have always called each other brother
states and two states of one nation, Azerbaijan felt alienated after
the recent trends.
Experts say the cooling relations will push Azerbaijan towards
Russia because Azerbaijan warned Ankara at times that Turkey will
lose Azerbaijan if opens borders with Armenia.
Travelling to Turkey, a group of Azeri MPs asked Turkish authorities
one question: Do you want to replace Azerbaijan with Armenia?
The group told a press conference that Turkish government officials
repeated that they will keep their promise and will not open borders
until the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is solved. But the delegation
seemed unsatisfied with the AKP government.
Vafa Guluzade, a former presidential advisor, and independent political
analyst, said Turkey told a lie to Azerbaijan.
"It turned out that Turkey and Armenia have been in secret negotiations
without telling us. After everything surfaced, they made promises
that 5 regions around Nagorno Karabakh will be released, then they
said the rapprochement process will be simultaneous with Nagorno
Karabakh settlement process. All these turned out to be lies. The
state policy should not be in this way… We should adequately react
to Turkey’s behaviour," he added.
He also added that the forces encouraging Turkey to open borders
deceive Ankara.
"They will never admit Turkey to the EU. Just see the situation that
Europe demands Turkey to delete the constitution clause protecting
Ataturk. Turkey will find itself conned. That will be too late,"
he added.
"Turkey showed its attitude. Without any preconditions, without
referring to Nagorno Karabakh, and without stipulating the release of
Azeri lands from occupation, AKP party put its signature on documents.
Then, Turkey showed its position during Armenian-Turkish football match
by insulting Azeri flag. Unlike Abdullah Gul’s arrival in Yerevan,
Turkey welcomed Armenian president grandly, seated him in an expensive
armchair, played Turkish girls before Armenian president with Sari
Gelin Song (Azeri national song), insulted Azeri flag, and didn’t
allowed it the stadium…" Fazail Agamali, one of Azeri MPs who has
recently returned from Turkey, told a local paper.
As to the removal of Turkish flags from streets in Baku, he said the
removal of foreign countries’ flags is required by law.
"There is a law on the use of flags. The removal of Turkish flags
is correct and an execution of the law. Turkey insulted our flag. We
raised this issue in our meetings. Why were they scared of admitting
our flag to the stadium? Was it an automatic machine gun? Was it an
atomic bomb? They told us a lie in Turkey. FIFA had no decision. By
using the name of FIFA not to allow our flag to the stadium was
Turkey’s attitude to Azeri government and its flag. Turkish government
is to blame for this," he added.
Head of the delegation Samad Seyidov expressed great hope that Turkey
will not open borders.
President Ilham Aliyev said earlier that he believes Turkey’s promise
that the borders will not be opened.
Azerbaijan said Turkey shouldn’t have knelt down before Armenia under
the pressure of some forces and for the sake of its EU membership
ambitions.
Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul denied any tension between Turkey and
Azerbaijan and repeated that "Turkey and Azerbaijan are one nation
in two states".
Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the opening
of his country’s border with Armenia would be tied to progress on
the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
"We want all the borders to be opened at the same time. But as long
as Armenia has not withdrawn from Azerbaijani territory that it is
occupying, Turkey cannot have a positive attitude on this subject,"
he said in Ankara several hour after Turkey and Armenia signed a
historic accord in Switzerland.
But a foreign ministry statement, circulated to Azerbaijan’s media
after the agreement was signed, said the move to open the borders would
"call into question the regional peace and security architecture".
It seems that Turkey’s efforts to calm Azerbaijan are not convincing
enough…. MILAZ