TURKEY, AZERBAIJAN PATCH UP TIES AFTER FLAG CONTROVERSY

Today’s Zaman
Oct 29 2009
Turkey

Turkish flags were restored on Tuesday evening to a Baku monument to
Turkish soldiers.

Turkish-Azerbaijani ties, strained over the historic Turkish-Armenian
rapprochement, have shown further signs of recovery as Azerbaijani
authorities raised Turkish flags at a monument to fallen soldiers,
days after removing them amid political tensions.

"What we are witnessing here is that our relations are back on track
on the basis of the principle of one nation two states," Murat Mercan,
a deputy from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party),
told reporters on Wednesday as he visited the monument, where the
Turkish flags were restored on Tuesday evening.

Mercan, who is heading a delegation of lawmakers from the AK Party
and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), had talks with Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev and other officials in Baku.

The lawmakers arrived in Baku just before the Azerbaijani authorities
raised the flags at the monument on Tuesday evening, ending emotional
tension with Turkey. "We are very happy that the Turkish flags are
flying again … just before the Republic Day on Oct. 29," Mercan
told reporters upon their arrival in Baku on Tuesday night.

Azerbaijan removed flags from a monument to Turkish soldiers who fell
while fighting for Azerbaijan’s independence in 1918, reportedly in
retaliation for Turkey’s decision — at the behest of the world soccer
governing body FIFA — to ban Azerbaijani flags during a World Cup
qualifying game between the national teams of Turkey and Armenia in
Bursa earlier this month. Azerbaijani flags were seen in a garbage
bin after police collected them at the entrance to the stadium,
angering Baku.

In Ankara, Foreign Ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin dismissed any
crisis in Turkish-Azerbaijani ties at a press conference on Wednesday,
saying crises are categorically impossible "within a nation." He said:
"There might have been some misunderstandings and difficulties, which
should be seen as just one incident in a long relationship. And as far
as I understand, this little incident was resolved as of this morning."

Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Hulusi Kılıc, who watched
as Azerbaijani authorities raised the flags near the monument on
Tuesday, said the development was pleasing. "The fact that our flags
are being put back in their place shows that Turkey and Azerbaijan
are two nations that cannot give up on each other," he said.

"I could not hold back my tears when I saw the treatment shown to
Azerbaijani flags in Bursa and when the Turkish flags were removed
at the monument," said Ganire Pashayeva, a member of the Azerbaijani
Parliament.

The controversy, which came after Turkey and Armenia signed protocols
to restore their relations and open their mutual border in Zurich on
Oct. 10, strained ties between Turkey and Azerbaijan. Baku is concerned
that it would lose its main leverage in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue
if Turkey reopens its border with Armenia. Turkey closed the border
in 1993 in show of solidarity with Azerbaijan, which fought a losing
battle against Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey has pledged several times that its process of rapprochement
with Armenia will not harm Azerbaijan’s interests, stressing that
Azerbaijan’s interests are as dear to Turkey as its own. But when the
flags were removed at the monument, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
said the monument was entrusted to the Azerbaijani people to watch
over and the Turkish Foreign Ministry delivered a note of protest to
Baku when it removed flags which were in front of a Turkish Embassy
building.

Last weekend, one police officer was sacked following an investigation
into the treatment of the Azerbaijani flags in Bursa. Davutoglu,
during talks with Azerbaijani leaders last week in Baku, had pledged
that the disrespect for the Azerbaijani flag will be punished.

Sincere with Armenia At the press conference, Ozugergin said Turkey
was sincerely committed to normalizing relations with Armenia, but
emphasized that what Ankara aimed at with this process was not solely
confined to progress in Turkish-Armenian ties. "Our purpose is also to
pave the way for momentum in relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia,"
he said.

"Everyone sees that peace and stability will not come to the Caucasus
if all the wheels do not revolve at the same time."

International mediators from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group have been working for years
to reach a settlement on the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. Ozugergin said
a senior Turkish diplomat, Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary
Unal Ceviköz, attended Minsk Group talks in Vienna last Friday and
added that "the process has momentum and we are working to further
speed it up."

The government has sent two protocols on the normalization of
relations with Armenia to Parliament for ratification but it is not
clear when they will be voted on. "The Parliament will approve of
no decisions that would disturb the people of Azerbaijan," Mercan
said in Baku. "There are several agreements that have been awaiting
ratification in Parliament since 2000," he went on to say, noting that
there is no time limit for the ratification of the Armenia protocols.