TURKS HAD LEARNED HOW TO BECOME A NATION FROM AZERBAIJAN?
/PanARMENIAN.Net/
22.05.2009 20:44 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Can Turkey’s policy concerning Armenia, which stands
like a knife between Turkey and Azerbaijan, change? Can Turkey come
closer to Armenia by turning a blind eye to Azerbaijan’s interests? Let
us focus on some specific issues. Can the border crossing between
Turkey and Armenia, which was closed down in response to Armenia’s
occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, be reopened?
All of these questions can be answered as follows: Turkey’s Armenian
policy may change, but Turkey’s policy regarding Azerbaijan will
not change in the least. Turkey shapes its Armenian policy based on
the Karabakh issue in the first place, as well as on Azerbaijan’s
interests. If it introduces any change to its policy, then it is
also intended to produce benefits for Azerbaijan," Today’s Zaman
cited Mumtazer Turkone, the author of "What is Azerbaijan to
Turkey?" article.
"Recent debates should be assessed from this perspective. Turkey
has launched new initiatives in order to normalize relations with
Armenia. These initiatives are conducted with a very important
assumption in mind: Turkey assumes that the existing status quo
in the Caucasus is detrimental to all three countries –Turkey,
Azerbaijan and Armenia. To maintain this status quo does not serve
the interests of any of these countries. It is not reasonable to
maintain this situation that brings losses to all three sides.
Today there is not a single issue that can be resolved by fighting
between Turkey and Armenia or between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Nuri Pasha, was applying what he had learned from Huseyinzade Ali
and Mehmet Emin Resulzade. Not only Huseyinzade Ali and Mehmet Emin
Resulzade, but also Anatolian Turks had largely learned how to become
a nation from Azerbaijani intellectuals. The national awakening of
Azerbaijani Turks, who were under Russian rule at that time, removed
the hesitation in Turkey resulting from its imperial heritage. In their
quest to ensure the survival of an empire, Istanbul’s intellectuals
were trying to conceal their national peculiarities due to concerns
about disintegration, but Azerbaijani intellectuals provided them
with the sort of inspiration they needed to create a nation out of
an empire in decline," Turkone emphasized in his article.