I DOUBT THAT TURKEY CAN GIVE UP ON KARABAKH – EXPERT
news.az
April 15 2010
Azerbaijan
Jeyhun Mollazade News.Az interviews Jeyhun Mollazade, chairman of
the American-Azerbaijani Council, co-director of US Azeris Network.
What can you say about the meeting between Turkish Premier Erdogan
and Armenian President Sargsyan in terms of normalization of the
bilateral relations?
It looks that the meeting did not produce any tangible result because
the issues of Turkish-Armenian relations are complex and emotional…it
is the recognition of "genocide" , opening of the borders in full
scale and Nagorno-Karabagh problem (NK) which could not be ignored
by Ankara no matter what…US Administration is pushing this agenda
forward for number of reasons…including the pledge made by President
Obama to the Armenian American community, the objective is also to
integrate Armenia into the Western world. However, non of that is
realistic without the steps and compromises that Armenian people
and the leadership should undertake on NK…I doubt that Turkey can
give up on NK and proceed on rapprochement with Erevan. It will hurt
any Turkish government relations with Baku, but also backfire it
domestically in local politics.
Information about possible soonest signing of a roadmap on
normalization of bilateral relations by Erdogan and Sargsyan has
recently been spread in mass media. Is the signing possible?
Roadmap signing is possible, but doing without progress that should
be also achieved on NK is very difficult for Turkish government.
The Turkish premier promised to include the Karabakh problem to the
agenda of his soonest talks with the US president. Will Obama listen
to Erdogan’s opinion?
I am sure that president Obama will listen to P.M. Erdogan on NK,
but Obama strongly believes that if Turkish-Armenia border opening
and rapprochement is linked to NK progress then nothing is going to
happen and he will be under the pressure to recognize "genocide"
by Armenians which he does not want to do because of worsening of
relations with turkey…Obama believes that such policy will help
for NK settlement if future, but it should not be a precondition for
breakthrough in Armenian-Turkish relations…
Does Obama depend on the coming April 24 in the Karabakh issue and
the problem of "genocide"?
24th April is approaching and no doubts that President Obama is
under strong pressure from Armenians as the elections to congress
is this year and democrats need Armenian funds and votes in certain
districts…