Azerbaijani ruling party lambastes bid to open Turkish-Armenian border
By Sara Rajabova
Collection of signatures for a petition on opening the Turkish-Armenian border "is nothing but an excuse", an Azerbaijani ruling party official has said, criticizing the Armenian lobby's attempts to achieve opening of the frontier, which has been sealed for two decades.
"Armenia has a very difficult socio-economic situation," Mubariz Gurbanli, deputy executive secretary of the Yeni (New) Azerbaijan Party, commented in an interview with the YAP website on Wednesday. "Therefore, the Armenian lobby by any means is trying to open the Turkish-Armenian border, thus seeking to give a second breath to aggressor Armenia [whose armed forces have been occupying over 20 percent of neighboring Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh region, since the 1990s war]. The signature collection campaign on opening the border for Syrian refugees conducted on the U.S. White House's website is nothing but a pretext to implement these goals."
The signature collection started on the White House website on January 5. An appeal was voiced for Turkey to open its sealed border with Armenia, at least for Syrian refugees, without any preconditions. The appeal can be considered in the higher instances if 25,000 signatures are collected by Feburary 4.
Gurbanli added that if the issue is about Syrian Armenians' arrival in Armenia, this can be done not only through Turkey, but also by other means.
"But the real nature of these initiatives is to achieve temporary opening of the border with Turkey under the pretext of Syrian Armenians' settling in Armenia," he said. "Furthermore, one can expect pressure on Turkey for permanent opening of the border with the aggressor country to save Armenia from the economic point of view. In this aspect the Armenian circles in the U.S. and lobby, and other forces supporting the aggressor country are behind the signature collection being conducted on the White House website in Washington."
Gurbanli says the border between Armenia and Turkey cannot be opened.
"On the other hand, if the Armenian lobby in the U.S is trying to take Syrian Armenians out of Turkey, it is not necessary to carry out this process through Turkey," he said. "It is evident that there is another purpose. Opening the Turkish-Armenian border in the current conditions will be regarded as support for the aggressor."
The Disasters and Emergency Situations Directorate of Turkey, AFAD, told Azerbaijan's Trend news agency on Wednesday that there is no need to move Syrian refugees from Turkey to Armenia and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border for this purpose is currently impossible.
"The needs of Syrian refugees in Turkey are met by the Turkish government and international organizations," the agency said.
Meanwhile, deputy chairman of the parliamentary committee on security and defense, Aydin Mirzazade, said that Turkey will not change its position on opening the border with Armenia, Trend reported.
"Despite the fact that 20 years have passed since the closure of the border, and succession of governments in Turkey, the position on this issue has not changed and will not change in the future," Mirzazade said.
He said a group of Armenians from time to time raises the question of opening the border with Armenia.
"However, this is nothing but an initiative. Turkey has a democratic society, so the issue of opening the border with Armenia could be brought up for discussion, but broad support for this issue is not possible," Mirzazade noted.
According to the MP, currently Armenia claims Turkish lands, trying to falsify history and to impose its allegations regarding a 1915 fictional genocide in Turkey.
"The policy pursued by Armenia today has negative impact on Armenia itself in the first place. This is why one can say that none of these initiatives will be successful," he said.
Chairman of the coordinating council of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh, Orkhan Akbarov, spoke out against opening of the Turkish-Armenian border.
"Turkey has repeatedly stated at a high level that the Turkish-Armenian border will not be opened until the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved in favor of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and that these terms will not be the subject of discussion," Akbarov said.
Akbarov said Armenia's attempts to raise the issue are pure populism. "Such initiatives have been often suggested, but failed," he said.
There are no diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia, and the border between the two countries has been closed since 1993, due to the Armenian claims for international recognition of the so-called World War I-era "genocide" in Ottoman Turkey and the ongoing occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan, Turkey's longtime ally.