ARMENIA: NO RELATIONS, NO OPEN BORDER SO NO VISAS
New Anatolian, Turkey
May 10 2007
After Armenia denied entry to Turkish election observers on the
weekend an Armenian official said Turkey was not eligible for that
task because it didn’t start diplomatic relations and didn’t open
its border with Armenia.
"My government has decided not to issue visas," said Vladimir
Karapetian, press secretary of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
told the New Anatolian. "The reason is the rejection of Turkey to open
borders with Armenia, as well as not willingness of the Turkish side
to open diplomatic relations. In this situation my government decided
that Turkey does not have eligibility to monitor the elections."
The observers, eight Turkish foreign policy experts of a mission
from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
were already on their way to the airport when the OSCE’s human rights
office informed them Sunday afternoon that Armenia refused to issue
their visas.
Turkey closed its 268 km border with its eastern neighbor in 1993
backing Azerbaijan in the war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, a
predominantly Armenian-populated region situated inside the republic
of Azerbaijan. A ceasefire signed in 1994 left the region under
ethnic Armenian control without leading to a final settlement of the
conflict. Being already landlocked, Turkey and Azerbaijan imposed
trade blockades further hampering Armenia’s economic development.
Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations.
Urdur Gunnarsdottir, spokeswoman for the OSCE’s Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights based in Warsaw, said her office was
concerned about Armenia’s rejection of Turkish observers.
"This is in breach of OSCE commitment, because Armenia, as any other
country in the OSCE (…) pledged to invite all other OSCE states
to observe their elections. And there is no small print, there is
nothing saying that countries can select their observers."
Gunnarsdottir said all attempts by the OSCE "to resolve this" with
the Armenian authorities have failed.
After Turkey’s ministry of foreign affairs learned about Armenia’s
refusal of Turkish OSCE observers it stated Armenia’s actions show
it is "far from constructive dialogue" and creating better relations
with its neighbors.
Mitat Celikpala, a professor of political science at the University
of Economics and Technology in Ankara is one of the eight Turkish
OSCE election observers whom Armenia denied entry. "All of them
are academics, they know the issue very well and we don’t have any
prejudices against Armenians," he said. "Therefore it would be a good
thing if it was possible to go to Armenia, we would write I think
very positive articles and comments for newspapers. But now we don’t
have any chance."
Armenia invited the OSCE in February to observe the May parliamentary
elections. After the monitoring of previous elections in Armenia the
pan-European security organization criticized Armenia’s failure to
comply with democratic standards, pointing to irregularities like the
falsification of results, intimidation of observers and violation of
the secrecy of the ballot.
Although the OSCE plans to work with about 300 observers to monitor
the election, Gunnarsdottir said the absence of the Turkish members
might negatively impact the monitoring process. "There will be fewer
observers, because we cannot get observers on that short notice,"
she said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
