Editor-in-chief of Russian newspaper: Turkey may further leave borders closed

Day.Az: Who do you assess outcomes of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington and his statement that only deoccupation of Azerbaijan’s seven regions can aid Turkey-Armenia rapprochement and opening of borders?

Rustam Arifjan: A large tangle of problems is involved in this respect. It is important that the preconditions that the Turkish prime minister reiterated during the U.S. trip as an official position of not only Azerbaijan. Turkish prime minister has announced during the whole course of the year that it is impossible to reopen Armenia-Turkey borders without a progress in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Erdogan voiced these terms in Washington as Turkey’s requirements. Turkey raised withdrawal of alleged "genocide" from the agenda and at the same time set progress in resolving the Karabakh conflict as a term. This is a good message to Azerbaijan. It is not known what Erdogan talked with Obama in private. But he stated it very  clearly and unambiguously while addressing the American students.

Regarding Obama's position, it should be noted that the United States is probably one of the states most interested in opening of the Armenian-Turkish border. By and large, opening of this border gives no benefit to Turkey from political viewpoint. The border closed since early 1990s did no harm to the Turkish economy. Only Armenia was affected. So, Turkey may further leave the border closed.

I think that in this context the U.S. Congress aid worth $ 8 million to Nagorno-Karabakh should not cause much outrage and fear. Maybe this is an attempt to sweeten the pill coming? Washington's pressure on Ankara has reached its limit. Erdogan reiterated his position which means more pressure at this point it is impossible. The ratification of the protocols will take much to be ratified as Turkey has clearly expressed its position. Americans will find other ways. Maybe, now they will put pressure on Armenia.

In your opinion, what do the updated version of the Madrid principles, which the OSCE Minsk Group submitted to the Azerbaijani side a few days ago, imply?

The most important thing today in settlement process incorporated in the updated version (diplomats often hide essence of documents by beautiful words) is nothing rather than synchronization of the process. Now the parties are like two cyclists who compete at a very slow start to the race, afraid to pull ahead lest a false start.

Obviously, the Azerbaijani and the Armenian sides will have to make some concessions although none of the sides admit it at present. Because the uncompromising positions of the parties can boost current status quo, or Azerbaijan would be forced to take unpopular actions of non-diplomatic nature.

Do you share optimism of many experts and political scientists who recently said the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is expected to be fully solved soon?

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will not be fully solved neither today nor tomorrow. Simply further diplomatic steps will be taken. I returned from Kazakhstan few days ago and witnessed there a lot of talks that the country will take up the OSCE chairmanship in January. This will be the first Muslim country, the first CIS member to take up the post.

It is important for Azerbaijan to have good relations with Kazakhstan. It is worth recalling that the Minsk Group does not exist by itself, but under the OSCE authority. Therefore, taking advantage of Kazakhstan's OSCE chairmanship, it would be expedient for Azerbaijan to urge the country to speed up the conflict resolution.

I simply do not believe in full settlement of the problem. It is possible that regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh will be liberated.

Rasul Mehdiyev