The Turkish prime minister’s recent speech in Iğdır that stressed Azerbaijan’s importance for Turkey was warmly welcomed in Azerbaijan, reinforcing the trust and understanding between the two brotherly nations, Azerbaijani experts say.
“Such statements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan explicitly show Turkey’s position towards Azerbaijan so that Azerbaijan knows it is much more important to Turkey than Armenia,” Cavid Veliev, a regional expert at the Strategic Research Center based in Baku, said in an interview with Sunday’s Zaman. Giving the speech during a Justice and Development Party (AK Party) election rally at the city of Iğdır’s Belediye Square on April 30 as a part of his election campaign, Erdoğan referred to Turkey’s relations with Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in front of a throng of local residents. He said straightening out Turkish-Armenian relations is not as important as settling the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute; without the settlement of this conflict, the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey is impossible.
“I am putting this issue plainly once more here in Iğdır: without any breakthrough in the Nagorno-Karabakh stalemate, our relations with Armenia cannot get back on track,” Erdoğan said. Talking to Sunday’s Zaman, Elkhan Şahinoğlu, the head of Baku-based Atlas Research Center, said Erdoğan’s saying that the security of Nakhichevan and Nagorno-Karabakh is as important as the security of Turkey and that Turkey backs Azerbaijan are very important messages for the international community, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Remarking on the completion of the highway in Nakhichevan, Erdoğan stated, “The Karabakh and Nakhichevan issues are of concern for Turkey.”
Erdoğan once more mentioned Turkey’s steadfast stand -- that without the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute, Turkey will neither open the borders nor establish diplomatic relations with Armenia. In addition, Erdoğan also said Armenia should understand that if Azerbaijan is threatened, Yerevan will find Turkey standing alongside Azerbaijan. Saying Turkey sent a gentle message to Azerbaijan, Şahinoğlu added, “Ankara is loyal to the alliance with its brother state.”
Normalization efforts between Ankara and Yerevan had shaken Turkish-Azerbaijani friendship for a short period after Turkey signed the Zurich protocols with Armenia in October 2009, an agreement to establish diplomatic relations between the countries. In 1993, after the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan -- post-Soviet countries in the South Caucasus -- diplomatic ties between Armenia and Turkey became strained. Supporting its strategic ally Azerbaijan, Turkey closed its borders with Armenia in an effort to make Armenia, which also says in has territorial claims over parts of Turkey, respect the borders of its neighbors.
Azerbaijan opposed the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border, saying Turkey’s normalization efforts put Azerbaijan’s attempts to isolate Armenia economically within the region in jeopardy, causing Azerbaijan to lose a bargaining chip in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. Erdoğan said in his speech in Iğdır that Azerbaijan’s pain is Turkey’s too. “Turkey has always stood next to Azerbaijan, backed it on Nagorno-Karabakh and will always continue to support it,” Erdoğan stated.
In an interview with Sunday’s Zaman, Elnur Soltanov, an expert at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, said that the Iğdır speech by the Turkish prime minister was not just calculated to gain votes, but an indication of the Turkey’s official policy. Despite most of the population of Iğdır having Azerbaijani origins, experts think the prime minister’s speech does not stem from electoral concerns alone, with Soltanov saying, “Erdoğan is a popular and respected prime minister of Turkey, and he has been noticeably consistent regarding the triangle of Turkey-Azerbaijan-Armenia relations since 2010.” Calling the message “clear, consistent, legitimate, legally powerful and peaceful,” Soltanov noted the similarity between Erdoğan’s Iğdır and Geneva speeches; however, considering that normalization between Turkey and Armenia will not bring comprehensive peace to the region, one cannot speak of any “normalization.”
While responding to questions from Armenian deputies during the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s (PACE) latest session, held in mid-April, Erdoğan stated that Turkey will always protect Azerbaijan’s rights, while attempting to normalize its ties with Armenia. Meanwhile, Erdoğan urged Armenia not to give in to pressure from the powerful Armenian diaspora. Revisiting the questions by Armenian deputies addressed to Erdoğan during that PACE session, Erdoğan restated his response to them in his speech in Iğdır, saying no one can expect anything from Turkey in regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
The Turkish-Armenian rapprochement resulted in a souring of Azerbaijani-Turkish relations. Although the Azerbaijani administration preferred to keep silent, saying this is an issue that concerns Turkey and Armenia only, there was growing concern among the Azerbaijani public that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would not be peacefully resolved and instead Armenia would benefit from the border opening.
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