InternationalFor Turkey, relations with Armenia are still linked to Karabakh
Gül calls all of Karabakh “occupied” Insists on Azerbaijan’s “territorial integrity”
Published: Saturday September 27, 2008
Yerevan - Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Monday, September 22, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan of Turkey said that the war between Russia and Georgia had shifted the political landscape in the Caucasus and had prompted Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan to try to settle their differences.
"The recent crisis in Georgia urged all the countries in the region to reevaluate policies and also have a stronger feeling of urgency," Mr. Babacan said, according to Reuters. [A report on Mr. Babacan's talk, prepared by the Armenian Reporter's correspondent, Florence Avakian, who was present at the speech, appears elsewhere in this newspaper.]
Turkey proposed that Mr. Babacan hold trilateral consultations with Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian of Armenia and Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan on Friday, September 26, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to discuss "frozen conflicts." As of press time, the Armenian Foreign Ministry could not confirm whether Armenia had accepted the proposal.
"The political will is there, which is probably very important, and then the rest is details to be discussed, and the devil is obviously in the details of course," said Mr. Babacan. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan when Armenian armed forces entered the Kelbajar region outside the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, President Abdullah Gül of Turkey said his country was trying to garner support for a Caucasian Stability and Partnership Platform, which his country had proposed. Mentioning his visits to Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan's earlier visits to Moscow and Tbilisi, he said, "all parties concerned seemed receptive to the idea and we hope they will give it a chance to work.
"I sincerely believe that a positive perspective thus created will contribute to the resolution of the frozen conflicts, including the occupied Nagorno Karabakh, on the basis of respect for the principle of territorial integrity. No doubt, such a perspective will also help improve the bilateral ties between the countries of the region," Mr. Gül declared.
Not a new idea
The idea of the foreign minister of Turkey hosting talks between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan is not new. In June 2004, at the NATO summit in Istanbul, Mr. Gül, who was foreign minister at the time, hosted a meeting with Vartan Oskanian and Vilayat Guliyev, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the time.
On September 22, Mr. Babacan met with Mr. Mamedyarov in New York. He was slated to meet with Mr. Nalbandian as well. The venue for the proposed meeting remained a point of contention until the last moment. Turkey called for the meeting to be held at its Permanent Mission to the United Nations. Armenia, noting that Mr. Oskanian had met his former Turkish counterpart Ismail Cem at the Turkish mission twice, proposed to meet at Armenia's Permanent Mission or, in the alternative, at a hotel.
High on the agenda of the proposed Armenian-Turkish-Azerbaijani trilateral meeting is, of course, the Karabakh question, the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, the Armenian Genocide, and the Turkish proposal to form a historians' commission to study the events of 1915, Turkish media reported.
Turkey as a mediator?
Turkey's interest in the Karabakh question is not new. In the early 1990s, Turkey actively armed Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia; it sent fighters and commanders, posing as volunteers, to the front. In the 1990s, Turkey even considered dropping a few bombs on Yerevan, to terrorize Armenians.
Turkey was also involved on the diplomatic level.
When the OSCE Minsk Group was formed in 1992, Turkey became a member. Mediators visiting the conflict zone would occasionally visit Ankara as well. In late 1992, a shadow cabinet emerged within the Minsk Group, comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, the United States, and Russia. Mario Raffaeli, the chair of the Minsk Conference, would also attend the hush-hush meetings of the group.
President Levon Ter-Petrossian spoke in favor of Turkey's more active engagement in the process, even though Turkey was openly siding with Azerbaijan. The first president of Armenia was of the opinion that it would be easier to counteract Turkey's bias if it were directly engaged. In spite of Ankara's position, it was Azerbaijan that rejected the "5+1" formula (which included Turkey) after Karabakh's forces entered Kelbajar. Negotiations under that formula continued for a while after that. Moreover, in May 1993, a joint proposal developed by mediators Vladimir Kazimirov (Russia), John Maresca (United States), and Volkan Vural (Turkey) was presented to the sides to the conflict. Baku and Yerevan accepted the proposal, but Stepanakert asked for more time and effectively rejected it.
Today, however, when Mr. Ter-Petrossian is in opposition to the government, he and his teammates criticize the government for engaging Turkey in the Karabakh issue.
"In New York a trilateral meeting will take place. There is even information that some sort of preliminary, nonbinding documents may be signed, which is evidence that Turkey is taking an active role in the negotiations to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Arman Musinian, Mr. Ter-Petrossian's spokesperson said in an interview.
Turkish and Armenian diplomats last week in Switzerland worked on a draft declaration of goodwill to be announced after the meeting of Mr. Babacan and Mr. Nalbandian, The Turkish Daily News reported in its September 23 issue. The draft aims to stress the political will from both sides for normalization of relations, with reference to the positive atmosphere that has emerged with Mr. Gül's visit to Yerevan.
The draft also includes plans to establish a number of committees to study issues, such as economic affairs, including the opening of the border and customs, cultural affairs, and diplomatic affairs. There will be no reference to the events of 1915 or other disputed issues.
