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AZERBAIJAN CONCERNED BY TURKEY-ARMENIA THAW
Hurriyet
April 3 2009
Turkey
ANKARA - A bid to open the border between Turkey and Armenia faces
strong opposition in Azerbaijan, with the country's foreign minister
saying Turkey would act against Azerbaijan's interests if it normalizes
relations with Armenia before a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict
Azerbaijan expressed concern late Thursday at the prospect of the
border being opened between its old foe Armenia and Turkey, where
U.S. President Barack Obama is set to visit next week.
Azerbaijani politicians and pundits believe that an open border with
Turkey would ease Armenia's regional isolation and encourage it to
maintain the status quo on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
With growing signs of a thaw in relations between Turkey and Armenia
after a century of hostility, the chances of Ankara opening the
frontier it closed in 1993 have improved sharply. The Wall Street
Journal reported the potential deal on Thursday, and said it could
be unveiled as soon as April 16, when Turkey's foreign minister is
expected to fly to the Armenian capital.
The Turkish and Armenian governments have agreed on terms to open
formal talks in three areas: opening and fixing borders, restoring
diplomatic relations and setting up commissions to look at disputes,
including the reported killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians
at the hands of the Ottomans in 1915.
Azerbaijan's interests
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said Thursday that
Turkey would be acting against his country's national interests
if it normalizes relations with Armenia before the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict is resolved. "If the border is opened before Armenian troops'
withdrawal from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, it will run
counter to Azerbaijan's national interests. We have conveyed this
opinion to the Turkish leadership," Mammadyarov told journalists
during a visit to Georgia.
Turkey closed its 268-kilometer border with Armenia in 1993 to protest
Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan,
following a bloody war. That conflict remains unresolved. But an
accord would be seen in Western capitals as a major potential success
that could help open up and stabilize the Caucasus, a region that is
studded with unresolved conflicts and hostile borders, and saw war
between Russia and Georgia in August.
Normalizing relations between Turkey and Armenia would "create a new
and positive dynamic" in relations across the region, "as well as
in developing the economic and transport links we have been pursuing
ever since the collapse of the former Soviet Union," said U.S. Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew
J. Bryza, the State Department's point man in the Caucasus.
But if the United States proceeds with the genocide resolution
introduced in Congress and dealing with the 1915 events, "I cannot
imagine any Turkish government opening the Armenian border," said
Ozgur Unluhisarcıklı, director of the Ankara office of the think
tank German Marshall Fund of the United States. Unluhisarcıklı
said he believes Turkey and Armenia will not be ready to sign a deal
before April 24, and that Turkey will instead "signal" its commitment
to reopen the borders in hopes that will be enough for Washington.
"Any durable reconciliation has got to be built upon Turkey's
acceptance of its past, and that is acknowledging the Armenian
genocide," said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian
National Committee, a U.S.-based lobbying group.
The extent of Armenia's isolation was demonstrated by the
Georgia-Russia war last August, which involved the Georgian
government's armed attack on South Ossetia and also showed the
limitations of American and European Union influence in the
region. When Russia cut off Georgia's main east-west railway by
blowing up a bridge, it also cut off the dominant supply route to
Armenia, a close Russian ally. Additionally, the conflict showed the
vulnerability of pipelines that have been carrying oil and natural
gas from Azerbaijan to Western markets via Georgia since 2006 and were
targeted unsuccessfully during the Georgia war. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
pipeline carries 1 million barrels of crude oil per day to Turkey's
Mediterranean coast.
Conference in Baku
A conference on the bilateral relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan
will be held with the participation of parliamentarians from both
countries in Baku from April 13 to 15, said Sabir Rustamkhanli, the
chairman of the Citizen Solidarity Party. Rustamkhanli added that
the chairman of the Motherland Party, Fazail Agamali, is in Turkey
to resolve organizational issues around the conference.
The Nagorno-Karabakh issue
Politically and geographically, Nagorno-Karabakh is far from the
European Union and the United States. As is true of most disputed
areas, some find the situation of this contested former territory
of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic to be a murky one and it
is difficult to determine which side Ä~^ Armenian or Azerbaijani Ä~^
to fully support.
Materialistically, fossil-fuel-rich Azerbaijan is the greater
prize. There is also a degree of understandable sympathy for the tragic
past of the Armenian people and some have expressed apprehension over
the human-rights situation in Azerbaijan and, to a lesser extent,
Armenia.
In 1988, Armenia occupied 20 percent of Nagorno-Karabakh and
seven surrounding regions. In late December 1991, Azerbaijan
lost Nagorno-Karabakh, except for Shusha and Khojali; by 1993,
the Armenian Armed Forces occupied those regions as well. In 1994,
the two countries signed a cease-fire agreement that ended active
hostilities. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, including Russia,
France and the U.S., are currently holding peaceful, but so far
fruitless negotiations between the rival states.
Hurriyet
April 3 2009
Turkey
ANKARA - A bid to open the border between Turkey and Armenia faces
strong opposition in Azerbaijan, with the country's foreign minister
saying Turkey would act against Azerbaijan's interests if it normalizes
relations with Armenia before a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict
Azerbaijan expressed concern late Thursday at the prospect of the
border being opened between its old foe Armenia and Turkey, where
U.S. President Barack Obama is set to visit next week.
Azerbaijani politicians and pundits believe that an open border with
Turkey would ease Armenia's regional isolation and encourage it to
maintain the status quo on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
With growing signs of a thaw in relations between Turkey and Armenia
after a century of hostility, the chances of Ankara opening the
frontier it closed in 1993 have improved sharply. The Wall Street
Journal reported the potential deal on Thursday, and said it could
be unveiled as soon as April 16, when Turkey's foreign minister is
expected to fly to the Armenian capital.
The Turkish and Armenian governments have agreed on terms to open
formal talks in three areas: opening and fixing borders, restoring
diplomatic relations and setting up commissions to look at disputes,
including the reported killings of hundreds of thousands of Armenians
at the hands of the Ottomans in 1915.
Azerbaijan's interests
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said Thursday that
Turkey would be acting against his country's national interests
if it normalizes relations with Armenia before the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict is resolved. "If the border is opened before Armenian troops'
withdrawal from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, it will run
counter to Azerbaijan's national interests. We have conveyed this
opinion to the Turkish leadership," Mammadyarov told journalists
during a visit to Georgia.
Turkey closed its 268-kilometer border with Armenia in 1993 to protest
Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan,
following a bloody war. That conflict remains unresolved. But an
accord would be seen in Western capitals as a major potential success
that could help open up and stabilize the Caucasus, a region that is
studded with unresolved conflicts and hostile borders, and saw war
between Russia and Georgia in August.
Normalizing relations between Turkey and Armenia would "create a new
and positive dynamic" in relations across the region, "as well as
in developing the economic and transport links we have been pursuing
ever since the collapse of the former Soviet Union," said U.S. Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew
J. Bryza, the State Department's point man in the Caucasus.
But if the United States proceeds with the genocide resolution
introduced in Congress and dealing with the 1915 events, "I cannot
imagine any Turkish government opening the Armenian border," said
Ozgur Unluhisarcıklı, director of the Ankara office of the think
tank German Marshall Fund of the United States. Unluhisarcıklı
said he believes Turkey and Armenia will not be ready to sign a deal
before April 24, and that Turkey will instead "signal" its commitment
to reopen the borders in hopes that will be enough for Washington.
"Any durable reconciliation has got to be built upon Turkey's
acceptance of its past, and that is acknowledging the Armenian
genocide," said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian
National Committee, a U.S.-based lobbying group.
The extent of Armenia's isolation was demonstrated by the
Georgia-Russia war last August, which involved the Georgian
government's armed attack on South Ossetia and also showed the
limitations of American and European Union influence in the
region. When Russia cut off Georgia's main east-west railway by
blowing up a bridge, it also cut off the dominant supply route to
Armenia, a close Russian ally. Additionally, the conflict showed the
vulnerability of pipelines that have been carrying oil and natural
gas from Azerbaijan to Western markets via Georgia since 2006 and were
targeted unsuccessfully during the Georgia war. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
pipeline carries 1 million barrels of crude oil per day to Turkey's
Mediterranean coast.
Conference in Baku
A conference on the bilateral relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan
will be held with the participation of parliamentarians from both
countries in Baku from April 13 to 15, said Sabir Rustamkhanli, the
chairman of the Citizen Solidarity Party. Rustamkhanli added that
the chairman of the Motherland Party, Fazail Agamali, is in Turkey
to resolve organizational issues around the conference.
The Nagorno-Karabakh issue
Politically and geographically, Nagorno-Karabakh is far from the
European Union and the United States. As is true of most disputed
areas, some find the situation of this contested former territory
of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic to be a murky one and it
is difficult to determine which side Ä~^ Armenian or Azerbaijani Ä~^
to fully support.
Materialistically, fossil-fuel-rich Azerbaijan is the greater
prize. There is also a degree of understandable sympathy for the tragic
past of the Armenian people and some have expressed apprehension over
the human-rights situation in Azerbaijan and, to a lesser extent,
Armenia.
In 1988, Armenia occupied 20 percent of Nagorno-Karabakh and
seven surrounding regions. In late December 1991, Azerbaijan
lost Nagorno-Karabakh, except for Shusha and Khojali; by 1993,
the Armenian Armed Forces occupied those regions as well. In 1994,
the two countries signed a cease-fire agreement that ended active
hostilities. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, including Russia,
France and the U.S., are currently holding peaceful, but so far
fruitless negotiations between the rival states.