GUL URGES BAKU TO BE OPEN TO DIALOGUE WITH YEREVAN
Today’s Zaman
Sept 10 2008
Turkey
In a problem-ridden region like the Caucasus, being open to dialogue
is key to providing a better future for the coming generations,
Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul told Azerbaijani media ahead of his
visit to Baku, which will take place today.
Gul’s interview with the Azeri Press Agency (APA) published on Monday
evening focused on the president’s impressions of a brief visit to
Yerevan on Sunday to watch a soccer match between the Turkish and
Armenian national teams, at the invitation of Armenian President
Serzh Sarksyan. During the interview Gul highlighted more than once
that he wanted the Azerbaijani people "to feel certain of us."
"It demands courage to say to Turkish President to come and to watch
the match together," Gul told APA. "I wanted to seize this occasion
for the discussion of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and problems between
Turkey and Armenia. To tell the truth, I was satisfied with the
realization of this visit, because state figures should measure
thrice and cut once and take any decisive step afterwards. If we
freeze the problem, it will be worse and worse. Then these frozen
problems become de facto. Therefore, state figures should conduct
discussions hardily. We all look like each other in this small land
as Caucasus. The majority speaks Turkish in the region or understands
this language — one should move this potential ahead and find solution
to the problems. During my visit, I very openly talked to president
Sargsyan on these issues. I talked to him more openly about all what
I am talking to you and stressed the importance of resolution of the
conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia," Gul said.
"I left Yerevan with great pleasure. There can be those, who were
against this visit in Turkey and Azerbaijan and I respect them. I am
sure that these initiatives will achieve good results and they will
also be happy. 50 million people died during World War II in Europe,
but Germany and France are closer allies at present. We should look
at the future, not only past and should open doors for the future. I
will visit Baku on Wednesday and share my opinions with President
Ilham Aliyev there," he also said, as reported by APA.
Turkey’s Armenian initiative followed its efforts to create a Caucasus
platform to resolve regional disputes after a brief Georgian-Russian
war last month. Ankara aims to bring Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia,
Russia and Turkey around the same table via the Caucasus Stability
and Cooperation Platform.
Also Monday, a senior Azerbaijani official told APA that his country
would not participate in such a platform unless the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict is resolved. "Our participation in any platform together
with Armenia is impossible unless the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is
solved. What can we talk about here? Is there a bigger obstacle than
the Karabakh issue, if we speak about stability and security?" Novruz
Mammadov, the head of International Affairs Department of Azerbaijani
presidential office, told APA.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijani media reported yesterday the results of a
poll revealing that most citizens of Azerbaijan viewed Gul’s visit
to Yerevan negatively and felt it would have a negative impact on
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
According to the poll, conducted by the Ray monitoring center,
88 percent of respondents viewed the visit negatively, while only
9 percent found the visit "positive," with 3 percent "neutral,"
saying the question "What is your opinion about this visit?" was
"hard to answer."