Ankara Suggests Kocharian To Recognize Turkey´s Borders

Ankara Suggests Kocharian To Recognize Turkey's Borders

Azg/arm
24 Nov 04

And to Stop Pushing for International Recognition of "Alleged" Genocide

November 20 issue of Turkish Daily News touched upon President Robert
Kocharian's speech made at Herbert Quant Foundation in Berlin and an
interview to the German Die Welt newspaper.

"Armenia's blockade by Turkey is one of those factors hampering EU's
cooperation with the South Caucasus. We consider it abnormal that a EU
member would-be country blockades a state included in New Neighborhood
initiative. This means that today we have the key to settle the issue,
and EU holds it", Kocharian said in his speech.

In his speech and interview to the German paper President Kocharian
noted that the possibility of settling Armenian-Turkish relations
emerged after European Commission's report, which suggested starting
accession talks with Turkey, and after Armenia was included in the
New Neighborhood.

In an article titled "Armenia urges Turkey to open border, Ankara
unmoved" the Turkish Daily News quotes an official saying that
normalizing ties with a country which refuses to recognize boundaries
would be inconceivable. "The issue of alleged genocide is also a
highly sensitive matter for Turkey and a major obstacle for the
normalization of ties", writes the paper.

Another Turkish newspaper Zaman also writes that there will be no
relations established between Turkey and Armenia unless the latter
stops claiming for genocide recognition and recognizes Kars Treaty
of 1921 that set Armenian-Turkish boundaries.

Since Armenia's independence in 1991, Turkey has been seeking after
Yerevan's retreat in territorial demands and renunciation of Armenian
Genocide. In spring of 1993, when the Armenian forces took control
over Qelbajar region administratively belonging to Azerbaijan, Turkish
government took a decision (4 April, 1993) of closing border with
Armenia. Armenia's blockade carries on since that very day. Ankara
drew forward a precondition for opening the border-gate: Armenia should
withdraw its forces from Nagorno Karabakh and contiguous territories.

Interestingly, neither Zaman nor Turkish Daily News mention about the
3d precondition. Ankara often uses Karabakh issue to pay a compliment
to congeneric Azeris. It should be noted that Turkey had time to
establish diplomatic relations with Armenia in the period of 1991-1993.

Turkish papers quote Kocharian saying, "For us, the recognition of
the Armenian genocide in 1915 by Turks is certainly very important,
but it will never be a condition for the development of bilateral
relations. If Ankara recognized this fact, it would be a significant
step forward in the direction of normalizing relations".

An official from the Armenian Foreign Ministry informed Azg Daily
that Turkey will establish relations with Armenia only in case Yerevan
officially writes down that has no territorial pretense to Turkey. The
official noted that the former Armenian government did not take that
step nor will the present and future governments do.

Turkey's demand of recognizing state's present-day borders is
nonsense in itself. If the Kars Treaty was signed by Armenia, Georgia
and Azerbaijan why does not Turkey demand the other two states to
officially declare about recognizing Turkey's borders? Moreover, if
a state joins the UN it means that the country recognizes borders of
all other member states. And in the end, even if Armenia recognizes
Turkey's borders it will need diplomatic relations in order to discuss
all the issues the countries face.

By Tatoul Hakobian