Why Does Azerbaijan Prefer To Keep Its Border Only Partially Open To

WHY DOES AZERBAIJAN PREFER TO KEEP ITS BORDER ONLY PARTIALLY OPEN TO TURKEY?

epress.am
01.19.2012

Turkey’s decision to introduce or tighten its visa regime on Feb. 1
is a blow to Georgia’s strategic plan, which is known under the
conventional name “Caucasus – a common home”. The Turkish parliament
delegation that visited Turkey explained that the new law applies to
all foreigners, which might be a small consolation. Especially since
this move will not affect another neighbor – Azerbaijan, reports
Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

According to the new law, beginning on Feb. 1, foreigners will be able
to stay in Turkey up to 90 days for a period of 180 days – that is,
they must leave the country after 90 days and can only return after an
additional 90 days has passed. According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the
appropriate bodies were unable to say anything about the laws applied
to Azerbaijani citizens in Turkey – it appears they will remain welcome
guests in Turkey even after Feb. 1, according to the late president
of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev’s axiom “Two states, but one people.”

The publication recalls that Baku, however, has not dared to introduce
a visa-free regime for citizens of Turkey, answering Ankara’s many
reminders with vague promises. Officially, Azerbaijan refrains from
completely opening its border to Turkey for fear of an actual war
with Armenia. But then a question arises: why does Azerbaijan have a
visa-free regime with Georgia which has much more cordial relations
with Armenia, and hence the probability of an invasion of Armenia’s
supposed subversive groups into Azerbaijan is higher from Georgia
than from Turkey? Therefore, a more plausible version is that Baku
prefers to keep the Azerbaijan-Turkey border only partially open
because it fears the great risk of Ankara’s increasing influence on
the population of Azerbaijan and the region in general. “It’s enough
that the Nakhchivan exclave has a very transparent border with Turkey,”
said the paper’s source in Baku.

Ankara’s decision has baffled Tbilisi, which has declared a policy of
maximum openness with its neighbors. The subtlety of the situation
also lies in the fact that the first nation to support Mikhail
Saakashvili’s policy of maximum transparency of borders with its
neighbors was Armenia, which in the edited version of Georgia’s
National Security Strategy published late last year appears only as
a neighborly state while Turkey and Azerbaijan are included in the
list of strategic partners. And if Georgia succeeds in agreeing on a
common customs regime with Turkey and even begins implementing this
scheme, then it would appear that the case with Baku wouldn’t have
shifted from observance of the visa-free regime.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress