TURKEY: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan urges Armenia to withdraw from Azerbaijan

Record ID: 217362

  • Title: TURKEY: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan urges Armenia to withdraw from Azerbaijan
  • Date: 12th October 2009
  • Summary: ANKARA, TURKEY (OCTOBER 11, 2009) (REUTERS) (CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER TAYYIP ERDOGAN COMING INTO MEDIA MEETING ROOM TV CAMERAS WIDE OF MEETING ROOM JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) TURKISH PRIME MINISTER, TAYYIP ERDOGAN SAYING: "Unless Armenia withdraws from occupied Azerbaijani soil, Turkey will not have a positive attitude about this iss
  • Embargoed: 27th October 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAF26FTIXM4QWK1ZJ78T6AT0U4Q
  • Story Text: Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday (October 11) that Armenia's withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan would help gain his parliament's approval for a peace accord signed between Turkey and Armenia.
    The accord aims to restore ties and open their shared border but last-minute disagreements delayed Saturday's (October 10) signing by more than three hours, forcing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to engage in intense talks to salvage the deal.
    The Turkish and Armenian parliaments must now approve the accord in the face of opposition from nationalists on both sides and an Armenian diaspora which insists Turkey acknowledge as genocide the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War One.
    Erdogan has previously told a party congress in Ankara that parliament had to monitor conditions between Azerbaijan and Armenia to decide whether the protocol can be implemented.
    "Unless Armenia withdraws from occupied Azerbaijani soil, Turkey will not have a positive attitude about this issue," he said at a news conference.
    "We want the Nagorno-Karabakh and occupied land problems to be solved in the same way. If the problems between Azerbaijan and Armenia are solved, then it will be easier for the Turkish community to embrace the normalisation of the relations between Turkey and Armenia. It will also make it easier for the Turkish parliament to adopt the protocols," he added.
    Turkey cut ties and shut its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan which was then fighting a losing battle against Armenian separatists.
    In his comments Erdogan looked to reassure ally Azerbaijan which reacted angrily to the deal, saying it could threaten security in the region and "cast a shadow" over its relations with Ankara.
    The Azeri Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that the normalisation of relations between Turkey and Armenia before the withdrawal of Armenian troops from occupied Azeri territory was in direct contradiction to the national interests of Azerbaijan.
    In a strongly worded statement, the ministry added that the deal casts a shadow over the fraternal relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey, which are built on historical roots.
    Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian signed the Swiss-mediated deal in Zurich at a ceremony also attended by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
    If the agreement comes into effect, it would boost European Union candidate Turkey's diplomatic clout in the volatile South Caucasus, a transit corridor for oil and gas to the West.
    Turkish officials told Reuters the two sides had many disagreements over each others' statements in Zurich, including oblique references to the Karabakh conflict. In the end, neither Davutolgu nor Nalbandian made public statements.
    Although landlocked Armenia stands to make big gains, opening its impoverished economy to trade and investment, Armenia's leader Serzh Sarksyan faces protests at home and from the huge Armenian diaspora, which views the thaw with suspicion.
    Armenians demand that Turkey acknowledges the 1915 killings as genocide, a defining element in Armenian national identity. Under the deal, Turkey and Armenia will set up a commission of international experts to study the events. Nationalist lawmakers in both countries have threatened to vote against the deal.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register