BY OKTAY EKSI
HURRIYET- In Baku yesterday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the right things and announced good policies. He tried to dispel the fears of the Azeri people and the entire Azeri administration, starting with President Ilham Aliyev, that Turkey would sell them out to normalize its relations with Armenia.
Not only the Turkish and Azeri people, but also all the relevant parties, including US President Barack Obama - who wants Turkish-Armenian relations to be normalized and the borders between the two countries opened - and particularly Armenia, saw that unless the problems suffered by Azerbaijan, and particularly the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, are solved, Turkish-Armenian relations can never be normalized. In fact, Erdogan told a press conference alongside Aliyev that Turkey shares Azerbaijan's sensitivity on Nagorno-Karabakh, adding that unless the occupation ends, the border can't be opened.
He made a similar statement in his address to the Azeri Parliament. He said that the Turkish-Armenian border was closed when Nagorno-Karabakh was occupied by Armenia. He added that when this situation ends, the border will reopen, and that Turkey can't proceed without an agreement with Azeris on the issue. Erdogan said that these two issues are inseparable.
Aliyev's remarks show that he was satisfied by this reassurance. Similarly, Aliyev said that Erdogan's statements were the best response to speculation on the issue. So if there was nothing to disturb Azerbaijan, where did the tension comes from? We all know that one of the reasons behind Obama's recent visit to Turkey was the huge promises he made to American citizens of Armenian origin. For example, before becoming president, he said that the Armenians had faced a genocide. But saying this as president was too big a risk. So he needed something to assuage the Armenians, namely opening the Turkish-Armenian border.
In truth, he was equivocal on the issue. But the agreement was spoiled when he used the Armenian word for 'genocide' in his statement on April 24. So both President Abdullah Gul and Erdogan criticized his statement. But at that time the Turkish-Armenian contacts were accelerated. Even Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan expressed hope that he would come to Turkey through an open border this October to watch a soccer match between Turkey and Armenia. What's more, he said that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue wasn't discussed during the meetings with Turkey. So what was Armenia supposed to do, except criticize this?