Azerbaijan-Turkey controversies

Azeri newspaper Zerkalo commented recently on certain details in the Azeri-Turkish relationship.

Until recently Turkish-Armenian relations were based on the issue of the occupation by Armenia of Azeri territories including Karabakh. The Azeri Foreign Ministry has recently made a statement saying that Turkey has a complete right to regulate its relations with Armenia without considering the Azeri position, but in reality Azerbaijan is very sensitive towards this issue. Azeri public opinion will not accept a warming of Turkish-Armenian relations without the precondition of fairly regulating the conflict in Karabakh.

Executive Secretary of the ruling party Ali Akhmedov has several times stated that Turkey should not take steps which would be against Azeri interests, meaning that Turkey should not open its borders to Armenia or establish diplomatic relations with it without resolving the Karabakh knot.

MP Aidim Mizarzade has asked Turkey to inform Azeri society about confidential Turkish-Armenian negotiations. Zerkalo thinks that these might be influenced by the economic factors, in particular the price of Azeri natural gas transported through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ezerum pipeline.

If Turkey will not consider Azeri interests whilst formulating Turkey-Armenia relations Baku will forget the “brotherly ties” which currently influence the price of natural gas. Of course Turkey does not want to upset its neighbour and brother but all kinds of negotiations are being conducted with Armenia in a confidential and suspicious mode, even though on the surface the slogan of the eternal brotherhood of Turkey and Azerbaijan remains unaltered.