ARMENIA’S FORMER FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS RELATIONS WITH TURKEY MAY GET WORSE
Today’s Zaman
May 21 2009
Turkey
Vartan Oskanian, Armenia’s minister of foreign affairs from 1998 until
April 2008, has said Turkey and Armenia will not be able to make
progress in their efforts to normalize relations if Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan brings the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute
between Azerbaijan and Armenia to the table, noting that relations
may even get worse if Turkish officials start to politicize issues
such as Armenian workers in Turkey.
"The moment we leave Karabakh out, we can improve Turkish-Armenian
relations. If we bring Karabakh in, I really don’t see this
happening. Karabakh is a separate issue. My conviction is that if
Turkey normalizes its relations with Armenia first, then the Karabakh
solution will be much easier," he said, speaking to a group of Turkish
journalists this week.
Oskanian said he first heard Erdogan bringing the Nagorno-Karabakh
dispute to the forefront three months ago.
"Until that time, I was really hoping that there was a change of
policy on the part of Turkey and we would get results," he said in
response to questions from a group of journalists who are in Yerevan
for the International Hrant Dink Foundation’s Turkey-Armenia Journalist
Dialogue Project, funded by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Association.
Following talks with Azerbaijani President Ä°lham Aliyev in Baku,
Erdogan said last week that the Azerbaijan’s sensitivity about
Nagorno-Karabakh was Turkey’s sensitivity, too. Erdogan said Turkey
had closed its border gates with Armenia because Nagorno-Karabakh was
occupied and that it would be impossible to reopen the gates as long
as the occupation continues. He also said the Minsk Group (co-chaired
by the US, Russia and France) should speed up the negotiations on
the issue, which have been continuing for 18 years.
On the other hand, Armenian leaders have been criticizing Erdogan
for making the normalization of ties with Armenia conditional on a
settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Oskanian also said Erdogan’s remark about Armenians working in Turkey
was not helpful.
The prime minister had said recently that Turkey could send the
Armenians who work in Turkey without the necessary permits back to
their home country. Some Armenians who are feeling the pressure of
the economic crisis have come to Turkey in the hope of landing a job
after obtaining non-immigrant tourist visas at the border and simply
overstay their visas after being hired for jobs such as babysitting,
cleaning and seasonal work.
"I am beginning to be concerned that not only will Turkish-Armenian
relations not improve, but they may even get worse," said Oskanian,
who had served during the administration of former Armenian President
Robert Kocharian. He is the founder of the Yerevan-based Civilitas
Foundation, which advocates peace and stability in the Caucasus
through multifaceted dialogue and promotes democratization.
Oskanian argued that the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations
would make the Caucasus coalesce into a functional region.