Here is what is happening between Turkey and Azerbaijan in regard to Nagorno Karabakh. Azerbaijan in late 1990s started war against the civilian population of the Nagorno Karabakh Armenians, who voted to be independent from Azerbaijan due to cultural and human rights related oppression. Armenia supported the move and Turkey blockaded Turkish-Armenian border showing solidarity with Azerbaijan. The later holds Turkey hostage to relations with Armenia. Turkey says you can't do that.
Today the most prominent newspaper in Turkey, Hurriyet in its lead story quotes a university professor who speaks of Azerbaijan's abuse of Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement. “Turkey cannot unilaterally resolve the Karabakh dispute. This is being abused by Azerbaijan,” said Hüseyin Bağcı, an international relations professor at the Middle East Technical University, based in Ankara.
On October 10 in Zurich Armenia and Turkey signed protocols aimed at normalizing the relations. While the process seems to be in a deadlock in the Turkish parliament the protocols have met with criticism in Turkey, parts of Armenian diaspora and Azerbaijan.
In Turkey the criticism comes from the opposition. It is concerned that Turkey should not open its borders with Armenia and establish diplomatic relations before there is any progress on the issue of Nagorno Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenia, US, Russia and European mediators say these to processes are separate and not linked.
Significant circles of the Armenian diaspora criticized the protocols voicing concerns that the international inter-governmental historical commission, establoished to deal with the consequences of the Armenian genocide carried on by the government of Turkey between 1915 and 1921 may question that fact. However, while Turkey calls it "historical" commission despite the absence of the word "historical" in the protocol, and hopes that it may question the fact of the Armenian genocide, Armenia rejects the approach and says stresses that it's an inter-governmental commission aimed at dealing with the consequences of the genocide, but not questioning it. In fact, in a response to the concerns of the powerful US Armenian diaspora Senate Majority Leader senator Harry Reid from Nevada called on U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to meet with Armenian-American leaders, sharing his concerns with the Armenian American community.
In Azerbaijan the criticism toward the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement comes from the fact that Azerbaijan feels that it is losing an important factor in solving the issue of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. In the past twenty years of the conflict - ceasefire achieved and maintained without peacekeepers since 1994 - Azerbaijan has used Turkey and the Turkish blockade of Armenia as a factor in pressuring Armenia for concession.
Now more voices from Turkey emerge saying Azerbaijan can't expect Turkey to unilaterally solve the Nagorno Karabakh problem. In fact Azerbaijan has not rendered the same support to Turkey in regard to Cyprus issue. Azerbaijan has also removed the Turkish flags from many prominent locations and has threatened to supply its natural gas to Turkey charging higher prices.
The international community hopes that the both parliaments of Turkey and Armenia will ratify the protocols and put it into force. If Turkey helps Azerbaijan to have more realistic expectations it may actually help to speedy resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Madrid principles, put forward by the Minsk group call for a referendum to determine the final status of the Nagorno Karabakh's Republic. In the meanwhile, more people in Turkey think that Azerbaijan should be more constructive and not expect Turkey to solve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict "unilaterally."
Written by Armen Hareyan
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