Azerbaijan concerned by Turkey-Armenia thaw
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Nisan 04, 2009 00:00
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 Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı, director of the Ankara office of the think tank German Marshall Fund of the United States. Ünlühisarcıklı 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 Ğ Armenian or Azerbaijani Ğ 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.
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 Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı, director of the Ankara office of the think tank German Marshall Fund of the United States. Ünlühisarcıklı 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 Ğ Armenian or Azerbaijani Ğ 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.