TURKISH MILITARY AGAINST ARMENIA BORDER OPENING
Emil Danielyan
RFE/RL
30.04.2009
Turkey — Turkish Chief of Staff General Ilker Basbug (L) and
Azerbaijani Defense Minister General Safar Abiyev inspect a guard of
honour in Ankara, 24Apr2009
Turkey’s powerful military has spoken out against normalizing relations
with Armenia before a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
raising more questions about a U.S.-brokered agreement announced by
Ankara and Yerevan last week.
General Ilker Basbug, chief of the Turkish General Staff, was reported
to endorse late Wednesday Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
statements linking the reopening of the Turkish-Armenian border with
the liberation of Armenian-occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
"The prime minister has clearly said the border opening will take
place at the time when Armenian troops are withdrawn," Basbug told
a news conference, according to Turkish media. "We completely agree
with this."
Erdogan repeatedly made that linkage earlier this month, pouring cold
water on hopes that the fence-mending negotiations between Turkey
and Armenia will yield tangible results soon. Still, the Turkish and
Armenian foreign ministries announced in a joint statement on April
22 that the two governments have agreed on a "roadmap" on normalizing
bilateral ties.
It remained unclear, however, when they plan to establish diplomatic
relations and reopen t he border. Neither government has officially
disclosed the framework yet.
Reports in the Turkish press have said that the United States
was closely involved in the drawing up of the Turkish-Armenian
statement. According to "Hurriyet Daily News," Erdogan agreed to sign
it only after Washington threatened to recognize the 1915 mass killings
of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide. U.S. President Barack
Obama refrained from using the word in his April 24 statement that
commemorated the 94th anniversary of the massacres.
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources in Yerevan said on Thursday that Foreign
Minister Eduard Nalbandian will fly to Washington this weekend for
talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Turkish-Armenian
relations will be high on their agenda.
Clinton and Nalbandian already discussed the issue over the phone
on Monday.
According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, Clinton described the
"roadmap" agreement as "historic."