{"id":18046,"date":"2010-03-25T22:23:19","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T20:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=18046"},"modified":"2023-04-06T15:47:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T12:47:24","slug":"ex-general-sees-continued-turkish-linkage-between-karabakh-armenia-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/03\/25\/ex-general-sees-continued-turkish-linkage-between-karabakh-armenia-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-General Sees Continued Turkish Linkage Between Karabakh, Armenia Ties"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"Armenia — Turkish and Armenian flags fly alongside each other during an international sporting event in Yerevan, undated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
25.03.2010<\/div>\n
Emil Danielyan<\/div>\n

Turkey will not stop linking the normalization of its relations with Armenia to a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, a retired Turkish army general who was involved in Turkish-Armenian reconciliation initiatives said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\nIn an interview with RFE\/RL\u2019s Armenian service in Yerevan, Sadi Erguvenc acknowledged that chances for the implementation of the Turkish-Armenian normalization protocols are very slim at the moment. \u201cThe situation does not seem to be promising,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Turkish leaders have repeatedly stated that Turkey\u2019s parliament will not ratify the U.S.-brokered protocols until a breakthrough in the long-running Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. A leading member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) reaffirmed this stance during a recent visit to Yerevan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may not look rational from the Armenian point of view, but Turkey values highly its relations with Azerbaijan,\u201d said Erguvenc. \u201cThat can not change easily without having a solution to the Karabakh issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just can\u2019t deny the Azeris the support that they deserve in our view,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir country is occupied to a considerable extent. Quite a number of people are suffering from this situation. So, of course, we feel committed to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether Ankara could drop the Karabakh linkage, rejected by Yerevan, anytime soon, Erguvenc replied: \u201cI don\u2019t think so.\u201d This policy enjoys strong public support in Turkey, he said.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

Armenia — Armenian and Turkish media professionals and retired state officials meet in Yerevan, 25 March 2010.<\/p><\/div>\n

The retired air force general spoke to RFE\/RL on the sidelines of a Turkish-Armenian seminar held in Yerevan by the Eurasia Partnership Foundation in collaboration with the Global Political Trends Center (GPoT), an Istanbul-based think-tank. The two-day event brought together former government officials and prominent media figures from the two neighboring countries.<\/p>\n

Erguvenc, who currently sits on GPoT\u2019s advisory board, had headed the intelligence department at Turkey\u2019s powerful National Security Council and a planning division at the Turkish army\u2019s General Staff before retiring from the military in 1992. He was also a member of the former Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC), a panel of retired diplomats and public figures that was set up in 2001 at the U.S. State Department\u2019s initiative. TARC repeatedly called for the unconditional establishment of diplomatic relations between the two states and opening of their border before being disbanded in 2004.<\/p>\n

Erguvenc insisted that the Turkish-Armenian normalization process has not failed and will eventually end in success if both sides stay \u201cforward-looking.\u201d \u201cAt least, the Turkish government is very much interested in remaining on the positive track,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have a declared policy of \u2018zero problems\u2019 with neighbors and they want to stick to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAn opening in the Karabakh question would improve the situation tremendously,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Yalim Eralp, a retired Turkish ambassador also attending the Yerevan seminar, similarly stressed the importance of Karabakh peace for the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement. \u201cWhen you get a new friend, you can\u2019t lose an old one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Armenian leaders argue that neither protocol makes any mention of the Karabakh conflict and that both agreements should therefore be ratified unconditionally. The United States and the European Union have likewise urged the Turks to honor the deal \u201cwithout preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTurkey places its relations with Azerbaijan above Turkish-Armenian relations,\u201d David Hovannisian, a retired Armenian ambassador and another former TARC member, complained during the discussion.<\/p>\n

Hovannisian also made the point that the publics in Armenia and Turkey are \u201cmuch more prepared for the normalization\u201d than the two governments.<\/p>\n

Eralp seemed to agree, saying that both civil societies should continue to \u201cpress\u201d their governments. \u201cBut we have to use that pressure cleverly,\u201d he cautioned.<\/p><\/div>\n

https:\/\/www.azatutyun.am\/a\/1993891.html<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armenia — Turkish and Armenian flags fly alongside each other during an international sporting event in Yerevan, undated. 25.03.2010 Emil Danielyan Turkey will not stop linking the normalization of its relations with Armenia to a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, a retired Turkish army general who was involved in Turkish-Armenian reconciliation initiatives said on Thursday. In an interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":783486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,89],"tags":[2129],"class_list":["post-18046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenia","category-turkey","tag-turkey-and-armenia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}