MESSENGER OF BAD NEWS: NO CONCRETE PROGRESS IN TURKEY-ARMENIAN RELATIONS
By Sercan Canbolat
Journal of Turkish Weekly
July 20 2010
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Kazakhstan to attend
an informal meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In that regard, foreign
ministers and high-level officials from OSCE-member states will
gather in Almaty to discuss recent developments about Kyrgyzstan and
Afghanistan as well as the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan
and Armenia.
Davutoglu had meetings with EU’s High Representative for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, and Bosnia-Herzegovina’s
Foreign Minister, Sven Alkalaj. He also had talks with Kazakhstan’s
President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Almaty on Saturday.
In addition, Mr. Davutoglu had an interview with local journals and
he stated clearly that opening the border with Armenia was out of the
question. In that sense, he refused news reports claiming the border
between Turkey and Armenia would be opened soon. Davutoglu asserted
that “nowadays, opening the border is out of the question. These news
stories are completely wrong.”
Moreover, Mr. Davutoglu added that he had discussed the subject with
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov underlining that he
assured Mr. Mammadyarov in the meeting that no such thing was planned.
However, according to Turkish diplomatic sources, Turkey might
allow the passage of NATO equipment through the Dogukapi crossing in
the northeastern province of Kars for a six-day NATO humanitarian
exercise in Armenia’s Lori Mar region. However, the aforementioned
border opening would only be a temporary implementation.
With regards to the Upper Karabakh issue, Ahmet Davutoglu had talks
with foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia. In this respect,
Davutoglu maintains his optimism about overcoming the deadlock between
Azerbaijan and Armenia by asserting that “talks will continue. I
believe that a solution will be achieved.”
From: A. Papazian