TURKISH PARLIAMENTARIAN: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO REOPEN TURKEY-ARMENIA BORDER UNTIL ARMENIA ENDS KARABAKH’S OCCUPATION

Today
Jan 22 2010
Azerbaijan

Day.Az interview with member of Turkey’s Grand National Assembly
(parliament) and Deputy Chairman of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)
Ismet Buyukataman.

Armenian Constitutional Court has announced the Armenia-Turkey
protocols consistent with country’s laws with preconditions which
has caused Turkey’s discontent. In your opinion, will the protocols
be ratified finally?

Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that it is impossible to
normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia until Azerbaijan’s seven
Armenia-occupied lands are liberated. The Prime Minister recalled the
UN resolutions on Nagorno-Karabakh asking the rhetorical question,
"who now must make the first move?". He replied to this question
himself: "Armenia should take the first step. Azerbaijan’s seven
regions should be liberated. Without solving this problem, Turkey
will do nothing to normalize relations with Armenia."

We want to believe in Turkish Prime Minister’s promise. Armenia
should resolve its problems with Azerbaijan and, first and foremost,
the Karabakh issue.

Armenians usually step up "genocide" propaganda before April 24. This
year ratification of the protocols by Turkey will also be highlighted.

Can Turkey reopen its border with Armenia as a result of outside
pressure before April 24?

It is impossible to reopen borders with Armenia until Armenia
rescind its decision on invalidity of the Kars Treaty of 1921 and
Gumri Treaty of 1920, which defines the border between Turkey and
Armenia, abolishes the item declaring Anatolia "Western Armenia" in
the Act of Independence, removes Mount Agrı from its coat of arms and
changes the related article in its Constitution, renounces its false
"Armenian genocide" claims, stops smear campaign against Turkey and
Turkish people in the international arena, eliminates causes that
led to the closure of borders between the two countries in 1993 and
takes steps to return nearly one million Azerbaijani refugees to
their homes and puts an end to Karabakh’s occupation.

Pressure from Armenians and international community can not change
this reality.

May Erdogan’s recent Russia trip change anything in terms of resolving
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?

In May 2009, Turkish PM Erdogan called on to take active steps to
settle the Karabakh conflict. At that time Russia announced that "the
problem should be resolved by the sides to the conflict." During a
recent visit to Moscow, Erdogan again raised the issue, and Russian
officials said they were ready to do utmost in this regard, but
believe that the Armenian-Azerbaijani and Armenian-Turkish problems
should be resolved in a package version.

This means that Russia takes the issue from a political standpoint,
and it has no initiatives in this respect. So, it is wrong to expect
something from Russia and hope that it will contribute to solving the
problem. Russia has shown its attitude to this issue many times over
the past 20 years.

Will the MHP change position on protection of Azerbaijan’s interests
in settlement of the Karabakh conflict and Armenian-Turkish relations?

Late national leader Heydar Aliyev once said "We are two states, but
one nation." Our Nationalist Movement Party has always approached
such issues from this point of view, and we will continue to treat
them the same way. Azerbaijan is our brotherly country. There can
be no other opinion. Your pain is our pain, and the MHP will always
protect Azerbaijan’s interest and will do everything possible to
address the problems of the fraternal country.

Day.Az

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