STANDSTILL IN ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATION, DEADLOCK IN THE KARABAKH ISSUE (ANALYSIS)
Tatul Hakobyan
“Radiolur”[ArmRadio.am]
28.03.2006 18:15
On April 4, 1993 the Armenian-Turkish border was closed on Turkish
government ‘s decision. Soon it will be 13 years of the blockade. The
ground for the blockade was taking control of Kelbajar region by Armed
Forces of Nagorno-Karabakh. Preceding that, in late 1991 Ankara had
recognized Armenia’s independence and established diplomatic relations
proposing two preconditions: Armenia should refuse from its ambitions
regarding the Eastern regions of today’s Turkey and should recognize
the borders of contemporary Turkish state, as well as stop the campaign
for the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In fact,
the withdrawal of forces from Kelbajar and later from the security
zone around Nagorno-Karabakh became the second precondition.
However, Ankara was not content itself with the blockade. In
1993 Turkey intended to penetrate into Armenia, about which
former Ambassador of Greece Leonidas Khrisantupolis wrote in his
recollections. Former head of the State National Security Agency of
Armenia Eduard Simonyants confirmed the statement.
Simonyants had stated in his talk with “Noyyan Tapan” Agency, “In
autumn 1993 Turkey was really intending to attack Armenia. And it
is not the sole case, for several times Armenian territory has been
under threat of Turkish attack.
The threat of invasion was really immense.”
In the recent 13 years there have been a number of meetings on the
level of Presidents and Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Turkey;
Armenian-Turkish relations, however, were not brought out of the
deadlock. Like 13 years ago, today Ankara does not refuse from
preconditions. On the other hand, however, Armenian-Turkish relations
have undergone certain transformations lately, to be more correct,
another component has been added to these relations, that is the
Karabakh issue.
The West is trying to include the settlement of the Karabakh
conflict and the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations in a
single package, i.e. to find a simultaneous solution to these two
most complex and extremely important issues for Armenia. Here, it
is important for us to understated the core of the solution, i.e. in
case we receive something useful in the Karabakh issue, what should
we give instead to Armenian-Turkish relations? And the opposite, if
we gain something in Armenian-Turkish relations, what and how much
should we yield in the Karabakh case?