TURKEY HAS LET THE MOMENT PASS, THE WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY IS VERY PROBABLY CLOSED FOR NOW: DR MICHAEL KAMBECK
Panorama.am
19:26 10/05/2010
Politics
"The normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia is
inevitable! It is in both countries’ interest and it will come.
Unfortunately, I don’t see it coming in the nearer future anymore.
Turkey has let the moment pass, the window of opportunity is very
probably closed for now," Dr Michael Kambeck, Secretary General of
European Friends of Armenia (EUFOA), told reporters and voiced hope
for a renewed initiative, perhaps by Switzerland.
"I fear that we will have to wait until after the elections in Turkey,
and then probably also in Armenia. My hope is that, whatever the
Turkish leadership will be, the Turkish President will travel to
Yerevan in 5 years through an open border and remember the victims of
the Genocide after 100 years," he said, highlighting that it would mean
that the maturing Turkish state has reached the level that apparently
they still need time to reach to. Even today, "the Turkish society
is already much ahead of its populist government."
Commenting on the statements of the Turkish leadership that
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations is impossible without
progress in Karabakh conflict settlement, Kambeck said, it is
clear that the Turkish foreign policy is much less strategic and
co-coordinated than it is often perceived. Another example for this
was the contradictory reaction from the Foreign Minister and the
Prime Minister to Obama’s Genocide message.
"On the rapprochement, I think that they didn’t exactly know what
journey they were embarking on, but they also didn’t want to be the
obstructive player and they didn’t want to act against their own
so-called zero-problems-policy.
President Sargsyan called that bluff. He also positioned Armenia very
visibly as a reliable and constructive international player. And apart
from that, the whole debate has put Armenia, Armenian-Turkish relations
and the issue of the Genocide recognition onto the international
political agenda. Turkey was not prepared for that and was trying to
develop its policy as it went along," he said.
According to him, finally, it became clear that the ultranationalists
have the upper hand and that Turkey prefers to let its foreign policy
be determined by Azerbaijan than by its own geo-political interests.
"Neither the EU, nor the US or Russia are to be blamed for the internal
political climate in Ankara," Kambeck said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
