news.az, Azerbaijan
May 15 2010
Turkey not to normalize ties with Armenia to damage Azerbaijan
Sat 15 May 2010 | 08:36 GMT Text size:
Rasim Musabeyov News.Az interviews Rasim Musabeyov, Azerbaijani
political scientist.
Leader of People’s Republican Party of Turkey Deniz Baykal has
recently sent to resignation due to the scandalous tape with his
participation. As is known, Baykal is one of the main opponents of
opening of the Turkish-Armenian border. Can the tape be made at the
order of the ruling party of Turkey to clear way to normalizing of
relations with Armenia?
I do not think that after it the Turkish leadership will return to the
process of normalizing ties with Armenia. The matter is that Turkish
Premier Erdogan has made corrections to the initial course on
normalizing relations with Armenia not because Baykal and his party
were putting pressure on him. A simple majority in the parliament is
rather needed for the ratification of the Turkish-Armenian protocols.
And these protocols could have been ratified. But the matter is that
Erdogan did not have an unambiguous attitude on this issue even in his
own party. The Turkish public opinion played a great role here as they
disagreed to ignore Azerbaijani interests in this issue. Thus,
regardless of whether Baykal quits or stays, the political line of
Erdogan has already been worked out, it is principal and has been
voiced both before Azerbaijan and Turkey. This line is that the
protocols will not be ratified and the Turkish-Armenian border will
not open unless there is a progress in the Karabakh conflict
settlement. I think this principal position will be preserved.
Could Baykal have been discredited at the initiative of the Turkish leadership?
I do not think the developments with Baykal were the order of the
country leadership. If he was taken on camera with a young prostitute,
I would have called it a special operation. But when we speak about
the affair of Baykal with his former deputy and parliament member, it
is clear that it would have been impossible to arrange it as a
provocation. They could only take it on cam, but it is impossible to
organize it as a provocation. Therefore, I do not think this was the
provocation of Erdogan’s party against Deniz Baykal.
On the whole, which steps should Armenian side to do on Karabakh for
Turkey to reanimate the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish
relations in full?
The first attempt was to separate these processes-the Turkish-Armenian
normalization and the Armenian-Azerbaijani regulation, They wanted the
Turkish-Armenian process to go first and they hoped that on the other
hand Armenians will feel at ease and on the other hand it will be
possible to promote the Karabakh settlement. But this trick did not
work. Now Turkey is facing the need to deal with this problem which
creates real risks to the regional security. The `genocide of
Armenians’ as well as the frozen Turkish-Armenian relations throughout
20 years do not create any risks to security in the region. However,
the unsettled Karabakh conflict may grow into war here. Therefore,
Turkey is obliged to deal with the main problem in conditions when
Armenia lost the bonus it hoped to gain from the quarrel between
Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Armenia has suspended the process of normalizing ties with Turkey but
it has not withdrawn its signature under protocols. What can you say
about it?
Armenians can certainly do what they want and they can even withdraw
their signatures, they have no other way out. In the end, it is
Armenia that needs the opening of borders and establishing diplomatic
relations. Turkey will live without it for ages. These states are
incomparable for their scales in this sense.
Can Turkey again face the pressure of superpowers that promote the
normalization of its ties with Armenia?
Pressure is when you depend on someone and you are rejected issuing
credits or they arrange something that causes real threats to you. But
Turkey is not in this situation. We should not exaggerate the pressure
which can be put on Turkey. Its EU membership does not depend on
whether she normalizes relations with Armenia. The Cyprus issue is
currently more important for EU and the resolution of the
Armenian-Turkish ties will not get Turkey closer to this organization
and Ankara understands this perfectly well.
Lala B.
News.Az
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
