A STRONGER TURKEY, A STRONGER AZERBAIJAN

Eurasianet.org
May 19 2010
NY

Despite the dashed hopes for a May 17 gas deal between Azerbaijan
and Turkey, Azerbaijani and Turkish officials have put on a good show
of unity.

"Azerbaijan’s sorrow is our sorrow, the joy of Azerbaijan is our joy,"
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan declared, paraphrasing
the quote ascribed to Ataturk. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev
curtsied back: "Turkey is getting stronger by the day. This makes us
happy, as the stronger Turkey gets, the stronger Azerbaijan will be."

Regional media speculated that Erdogan arrived in Azerbaijan on a
mission to coax Aliyev into concessions on natural gas and Karabakh.

Neither has occurred. The gas deal got postponed, while Turkey and
Azerbaijan played the same broken Karabakh record: Armenia must give
up some of the land it occupies before the Turkish-Armenia border
can open.

The Turkey-Azerbaijan-Armenia discussions are increasingly reminiscent
of the haggling over chairs between adventurist Ostap Bender and
theater hand Mechnikov from the iconic Soviet satire "The 12 Chairs:"

Mechnikov: "The money in the morning, the chairs in the evening or
the money in the evening, and the chairs next morning."

Bender: "How about chairs today, money tomorrow?"

Mechnikov: ". . .My soul refuses to accept such terms."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress