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BAKU: Political Storm Between Turkey, France To Have Ramifications I

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  • BAKU: Political Storm Between Turkey, France To Have Ramifications I

    POLITICAL STORM BETWEEN TURKEY, FRANCE TO HAVE RAMIFICATIONS IN CAUCASUS

    news.az
    Dec 26 2011
    Azerbaijan

    Turkey's sanctions aim at limiting French presence in the Mideast,
    Caucasus and will remain even if the French Senate disapproves the
    'genocide' bill.

    Turkey's military and political sanctions against France over the
    adoption of a controversial "genocide" bill aim to limit French
    influence in the Middle East and Caucasus, two important regions
    associated with ongoing ethnic and sectarian conflicts.

    Immediately after the French Parliament voted Dec. 22 in favor of a
    bill penalizing the denial of the 1915 events as genocide, the Turkish
    government announced that it would retaliate in kind with sanctions
    falling into eight categories. Four of them are military-related,
    three are political and the last spells out the cancelation of an
    economic and trade meeting.

    In addition to the cancelation of joint military drills and joint
    exchange and training programs, Turkey has canceled annual blanket
    over-flight permission for French state planes and will instead issue
    permission on a case-by-case basis. It will also halt requests for
    port visits by French warships.

    A very important detail suggests that these sanctions are not going
    to be removed even if France retreats from its position and quashes
    the genocide bill in the Senate. "The sanctions will continue to
    be valid until the Turkish government says the opposite," a Turkish
    diplomat recently told the Hurriyet Daily News.

    According to the diplomats, the measures will seriously affect French
    access to the Middle East and the region beyond Turkey.

    "France has intense ties with so many countries in our neighborhood.

    It has military and other sorts of cooperation with these countries.

    They gained a great advantage in reaching out to these regions using
    the blanket permission we have long provided to them," a diplomat
    told the Daily News. "Now they will lose time and money in doing so."

    Two of the Middle East's key countries, Syria and Lebanon, where France
    replaced the Ottoman Empire as the colonial power after World War I,
    are seen as being crucial for the entire region's stability and still
    have close ties with Paris. Though the turmoil in Syria precipitated
    rapprochement between Turkey and France, recent developments indicate
    that the power struggle between the two sparring countries will now
    be exercised in the Middle East.

    "Turkey will do everything to prevent a meeting on Syria and other
    key topics under the aegis of France," a diplomat said.

    However, this development has seriously disturbed the United States
    since the tension is likely to weaken the international community's
    position vis-a-vis Syria.

    Baku evaluates Turkish move

    The political storm between Turkey and France will also have
    ramifications in the Caucasus, developments suggest.

    Even before the adoption of the law, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
    Davutoglu complained about France's membership in the Minsk Group at a
    meeting with Lamberto Zannier, secretary-general of the Organization
    for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The Minsk Group was
    established in 1992 to solve the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan
    and consists of France, Russia and the United States.

    "We have made clear to the OSCE secretary-general that France
    membership in the OSCE [Minsk Group] would damage the group's works as
    Paris openly took sides with the Armenians on this issue due to strong
    pressure from the Armenian diaspora," a diplomat told the Daily News.

    But the diplomat said Turkey had not made any official application to
    the OSCE after the adoption of the law and had not asked Azerbaijan
    to do so either.

    On Dec. 23 President Abdullah Gul asked for France's immediate removal
    from the Minsk Group membership on the grounds that it had lost its
    neutrality on the matter.

    "Evaluations on Turkey's views are underway," an Azerbaijani official
    told the Daily News yesterday, adding that the France's adoption of
    the controversial bill had caused a serious reaction in Baku as well.

    Though the government has remained silent on the issue, Deputy
    Parliamentary Chairwoman Bahar Muradova said, "Such behavior by France
    puts its impartiality and objectivity in doubt as a co-chairman of the
    OSCE Minsk Group in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
    conflict."



    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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