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Erdogan Discusses Protocols, Karabakh With Wall Street Journal

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  • Erdogan Discusses Protocols, Karabakh With Wall Street Journal

    ERDOGAN DISCUSSES PROTOCOLS, KARABAKH WITH WALL STREET JOURNAL

    Asbarez
    http://www.asbarez.com/2009/10/07 /erdogan-discusses-protocols-karabakh-with-wall-st reet-journal/
    Oct 7th, 2009

    These are edited excerpts of a transcript of an interview with Turkey
    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, conducted through a translator
    on Sunday, Oct. 3.

    WSJ: Are you confident that the protocol on reopening the border with
    Armenia will be signed on Saturday and is it contingent on progress
    on the Nagorno Karabakh issue at the meeting between the Armenian
    and Azerbaijani presidents on Saturday?

    Reccep Tayyip Erdogan: Thank you for the question I'm very glad you
    asked this question. Our foreign minister is going to sign this
    agreement with the Armenian foreign minister [Eduard] Nalbandian
    on Oct. 10, if there is no negative development on the part of the
    Armenians from today until the 10th of October, I don't see any problem
    with signing of this agreement, because as the world has known and
    will see again we always stick to our promises. So, so long as there is
    no change to the text, we are ready as it is now to sign the agreement.

    We'd also like to see the Minsk group [an international grouping
    that oversees peace talks on Nagorno Karabakh] witness the signing
    of this agreement actually - and if the French don't come perhaps
    the Americans or the Russians will come. And in addition to that the
    meeting in Moldova is very important because although the Armenians
    sometimes say this agreement has nothing to do with the Azeris,
    there is in fact a relationship. Because most recently, I believe
    when president Sarkisian was on an international visit, he was faced
    by a reaction from the Armenian Diaspora. So what he does in face of
    the reaction of the Diaspora is very important. If he can stand firm,
    and if it is the government of Armenia and not the Armenian Diaspora
    that is determining policy in Armenia, then I think that we can move
    forward. As far as we're concerned there is no problem. But it is up
    to the government in Armenia.

    As for the parliament ... of course as is the case in any democratic
    country, in any democratic parliament, what governments do is they
    prepare a draft, they send it to the parliament, and there is a secret
    ballot on that and everyone will vote in the way they want to vote, and
    there is no way one can control that. This in fact happened a few years
    back on the first of March - what we call the parliamentary motion of
    the first of March - where the government prepared a motion, sent it
    to the parliament, but it was not ratified, it did not get a majority
    of votes in the parliament and could not be passed. I became prime
    minister after that parliamentary motion was sent to the parliament,
    this was back in 2003, when we presented a new draft, this was about
    troops into Iraq. At the time the second draft....got the necessary
    votes in parliament, but our American friends and our brothers in
    Iraq did not want to have troops cross into Iraq by the time the
    second motion passed, so the second draft was not put into practice. ..

    What is important and I would like to underline this, because this is
    perhaps the most important point is that Armenia should not allow its
    policies to be taken hostage by the Armenian Diaspora. It should be
    up to the government to carry out its policies. And in that context
    the Moldova meeting is very important on Nagorno Karabakh, because if
    you look at Nagorno Karabakh and where it stands today there aren't in
    fact too many more issues left to be resolved. There are out of seven
    regions, five that have been resolved and two, Lachin and Kelbajar to
    be exact, where there is an issue with the size. If those issues can
    be resolved there could be a positive result. So all in all there
    is in fact a move for the better. But we have taken our positive
    steps. We have been taking pos steps for some time. For example we
    have allowed flights between Yerevan and Istanbul, cargo flights are
    free to travel. And we have about 40000 Armenians who live in turkey,
    who came from Armenia, who do not have the necessary legal papers. We
    do not send them back, we allow them to stay.

    So all of these are important messages actually...

    WSJ: so is signature on the 10th of October contingent on progress
    at the meeting in Moldova?

    R.T.E.: The agreement will be signed on the 10th. It doesn't have
    anything to do with what happens in Moldova. But of course a positive
    development in Moldova will definitely have a positive impact on the
    process altogether.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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