ANKARA WILL NEVER AGREE TO DETERIORATION OF RELATIONS WITH THE U.S. BECAUSE OF AZERBAIJAN
Karine Ter-Sahakyan

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.11.2009 GMT+04:00

Over the past few days the Turkish press has stopped writing about its
"brotherly" neighbour. Moreover, there appear articles about the myth
of "one nation, two states".

The level of nervousness in Baku after the signing of the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols has reached its highest. The
authorities apparently realized that, despite the assurances of
"brotherly" Turkey, no parallel processes will go with the Karabakh
conflict settlement. Though immediately after the signing of the
Armenian-Turkish Protocols in Zurich, the rhetoric of high-ranking
Turkish officials significantly intensified with regards to the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it didn’t last long and it had its reasons.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Ankara will never agree to deterioration of relations
with the U.S. or any other party concerned about a peaceful resolution
of the conflict. Moreover, if we believe certain media reports – and
sometimes they really should be believed – Washington actually issued
a tough ultimatum to Azerbaijan: she made it clear that "Karabakh
independence will be recognized, should Azerbaijan attempt to launch
military operations in NKR," Yeni Musavat Oppositional Azeri Party
official website reported on Tuesday, followed by other Azeri media
representatives.

In observer’s opinion, Baku’s military rhetoric is caused by the fact
that in the agenda of Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiations on Karabakh
status, mediated by Russia, US and France, Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity is not discussed, as required by the country’s President
Ilham Aliyev, NEWSru.com reports.

However, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov
said he knew nothing about Washington’s ultimatum. "Azerbaijan is
not a country to be spoken with in the language of ultimatum," he
said. "We are conducting an independent foreign policy based on our
national interests," Polukhov added.

How independent a foreign policy the South Caucasus countries can
have, is probably not worth mentioning. But Baku so deeply believes in
her own power and energy, that she does not see what is obvious. And
the obvious fact is that over the past few days, the Turkish press
has stopped writing about its "brotherly" neighbour. Moreover, there
appear articles about the myth of "one nation, two states". Speaking at
the rally of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Prime Minister
Erdogan spoke about everything: the Kurdish problem, cooperation with
Iran on regional projects and Turkey’s EU membership.

However, he said not a single word about Karabakh, and it is
symptomatic.

It so happened that these days, Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu
participates in the ministerial D-8 Summit in Kuala Lumpur. D-8 is an
analogue of the G8 for the countries of Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC), in which Azerbaijan has no place. Only Bangladesh,
Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey are
members of this association, i.e. countries for which the resolution of
the Karabakh conflict is neither necessary nor important. By the way,
the countries of OIC, which so recently were spoken about with great
enthusiasm in Baku, have quite a different from Azerbaijan position on
Nagorno-Karabakh. For example, Iran and Syria, and sometimes Egypt, if
we use the lexicon of official Baku, take up a pro-Armenian position,
while others simply do not make public their position, reasoning from
their own interests and not out of their great love towards Armenia
and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Meanwhile, The Jamestown Foundation writes: "Traditionally an ally,
brother and last resort of hope, Turkey is no longer trusted in the
Azerbaijani capital. In an effort to gain an additional friendly
neighbor, Ankara seems to have overstretched and nearly ruined
its strategic relations with Azerbaijan. It is clear that the
recent developments in the South Caucasus and the Turkish-Armenian
rapprochement have seriously damaged the Turkish-Azerbaijani strategic
partnership. This partnership has been the backbone of East-West energy
and its future transportation corridors, security, political and
geo-strategic balance in the region, as well as the overall Turkish
(or Western) entrance into the Caspian region," says the author,
who, of course, doesn’t like the fact that Turkey has decided to
"free herself" from Baku.

And lastly, US International Republican Institute (IRI) office ends
its activity in Azerbaijan. Head of IRI office Jake Johns declared the
office would be closed on November 30 of the current year. Chairman
of Musavat party Isa Gambar, expressing his regret over the issue,
considered it expedient to continue the work of the office in terms of
strengthening relations between the U.S. and Azerbaijan, and solving
problems associated with democracy and freedom. But the U.S. had
different views…