Today’s Zaman: Azerbaijanis also played a great role in the establishment of the present-day Turkey

“Can Turkey's policy concerning Armenia, which stands like a knife between Turkey and Azerbaijan, change? Can Turkey come closer to Armenia by turning a blind eye to Azerbaijan's interests? Let us focus on some specific issues. Can the border crossing between Turkey and Armenia, which was closed down in response to Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, be reopened?

All of these questions can be answered as follows: Turkey's Armenian policy may change, but Turkey's policy regarding Azerbaijan will not change in the least. Turkey shapes its Armenian policy based on the Karabakh issue in the first place, as well as on Azerbaijan's interests. If it introduces any change to its policy, then it is also intended to produce benefits for Azerbaijan,” Today’s Zaman cited Mumtazer Turkone, the author of “What is Azerbaijan to Turkey?” article.

“Recent debates should be assessed from this perspective. Turkey has launched new initiatives in order to normalize relations with Armenia. These initiatives are conducted with a very important assumption in mind: Turkey assumes that the existing status quo in the Caucasus is detrimental to all three countries --Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia. To maintain this status quo does not serve the interests of any of these countries. It is not reasonable to maintain this situation that brings losses to all three sides.

Today there is not a single issue that can be resolved by fighting between Turkey and Armenia or between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Nuri Pasha, was applying what he had learned from Hüseyinzade Ali and Mehmet Emin Resulzade. Not only Hüseyinzade Ali and Mehmet Emin Resulzade, but also Anatolian Turks had largely learned how to become a nation from Azerbaijani intellectuals. The national awakening of Azerbaijani Turks, who were under Russian rule at that time, removed the hesitation in Turkey resulting from its imperial heritage. In their quest to ensure the survival of an empire, İstanbul's intellectuals were trying to conceal their national peculiarities due to concerns about disintegration, but Azerbaijani intellectuals provided them with the sort of inspiration they needed to create a nation out of an empire in decline,” Turkone emphasized in his article.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/