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BAKU: Azeri press offers differing views on Gul's planned visit

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  • BAKU: Azeri press offers differing views on Gul's planned visit

    Compiled from
    Yeni Azarbaycan, Azerbaijan
    Azadliq, Azerbaijan
    Yeni Musavat, Azerbaijan
    Zerkalo, Azerbaijan
    Sept 5 2008



    Azeri press offers differing views on Turkish leader's planned visit
    to Armenia



    The Azerbaijani ruling party's newspaper Yeni Azarbaycan has harshly
    criticized Turkish President Abdullah Gul's planned visit on 6
    September to Armenia to watch a football game between the Turkish and
    Armenian national teams.

    "Gul, president of Turkey which is the closest friend of Azerbaijan
    and its strategic partner, will visit an enemy country, Armenia, which
    has territorial claims to both our country and Turkey and which
    murders people, having forgotten the fundamental principles 'One
    nation - two countries' and 'Azerbaijan's grief is our grief and its
    joy is our joy' which describe our historical relationship," Yeni
    Azarbaycan said on 5 September. "It does not matter whether Gul will
    meet government officials or watch a football game in Yerevan. What is
    important is that in this way Turkey will stab its friend in the
    back. It will not matter whether this step is explained and linked
    with enforcement rules required by the globalizing world, pressure by
    an Anglo-Saxon-Jewish alliance that is trying to dictate a unipolar
    world order or Russian propaganda."

    The paper also recalled that Abdullah Gul himself criticized the then
    Turkish President Suleyman Demirel in 1993 over the visit to Ankara of
    former Armenian President Ter-Petrosyan.

    "Although 15 years have passed since then, nothing has changed. But
    Gul is going to Yerevan to watch a football match," Yeni Azarbaycan
    said.

    The opposition Azadliq newspaper said that despite criticism of Gul's
    planned visit in Azerbaijan, the Baku government welcomed the move.

    Commenting on the stance of the Azerbaijani authorities, the deputy
    chairman of the People's Front of Azerbaijan Party, Nuraddin Mammadli,
    told Azadliq that the Baku government had coordinated its reaction
    with Ankara.

    "Because the Azerbaijani government has reached a critical point due
    to the recent developments in the region and it does not need another
    headache with Turkey," Mammadli said. "On the other hand, the
    Azerbaijani government has no levers to influence the current
    processes between Turkey and Armenia. Turkey has been taking the
    latest steps with the EU's consent."

    In the meantime, the leader of the opposition Musavat party, Isa
    Qambar, said that Azerbaijan should trust Turkey.

    "I believe that we should be able to trust Turkey and rely on it,"
    Qambar said in an extensive interview with Yeni Musavat newspaper on 5
    September. "I am confident that Turkey is a country that seriously
    understands that it is responsible for the fate of both the Turkish
    people and Turkic nations and Turkic republics."

    Qambar also said that if Azerbaijan wants Turkey to become a mediator
    in the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict over Nagornyy Karabakh, it should
    accept contacts between Ankara and Yerevan.

    Independent Zerkalo newspaper said that Azerbaijan should not
    dramatize the forthcoming talks between Armenia and Turkey and wait
    for their outcome. "The opening of borders between Turkey and Armenia
    will lead to the creation of qualitatively new relations at a new
    level in the South Caucasus," the paper added.


    [translated from Azeri]
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