AZERBAIJANI POPULATION NEGATIVELY ASSESSING TURKISH PRESIDENT’S VISIT TO YEREVAN
Today.Az
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Sept 9 2008
Azerbaijan
Most citizens of Azerbaijan negatively assess the visit of Turkish
President A.Gul to Yerevan on September 6 and consider that it will
have a negative impact on the Karabakh conflict resolution.
According to the report of the Ray monitoring center, which held a
public poll regarding Gul’s visit to Yerevan, the reaction of the
respondents turned out to be extremely negative.
Answering the question "What is your opinion about this visit?", only
9% respondents chose such alternatives as "positive" or "neutral (3%
found it hard to answer), said Interfax-Azerbaijan.
The remaining 88% of population assessed this visit negatively.
Most respondents, explaining this decision, said that they assess the
said visit as an unfriendly step towards Azerbaijan and betrayal of
national interests of Turkey and Azerbaijan.
The poll showed that the population mostly expects nothing good
for Azerbaijan from rapprochement of Ankara and Yerevan. Thus 92%
of respondents negatively assessed the current actions of Turkey,
which starts to restore cooperation with Armenia, in fact, rejecting
preliminary conditions – Yerevan’s disavowal of the campaign on
recognition of "genocide of Armenians", rejection of the territorial
claims to Turkey and liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani lands.
Most respondents (90%) consider that the visit to Yerevan will
not promote the resolution of Nagorno Karabakh conflict and 93% of
respondents spoke against possible opening of the Armenian-Turkish
border, closed since occupation of Karabakh and adjacent regions of
Azerbaijan by Armenia.
Most respondents (92%) consider that Gul’s visit to Yerevan shows
changes in Turkey’s position in the issue of Nagorno Karabakh and
these changes seem to be negative for Azerbaijan.
The public poll was held on September 5-7. Over 1,800 people at
the age of 18 and older were interviewed by the place of residence,
with inaccuracy of no more than 3%.