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Azerbaijani intellectuals appeal to Turkish intellectuals

06 April 2009 17:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Azerbaijani intellectuals appealed to Turkish intellectuals in connection with the opening of Turkey-Armenia borders, APA reports. The appeal says that Azerbaijani intellectuals are attentively following Turkeyâ€™s great diplomatic-political efforts aiming to restore peace, kind neighborhood and prosperity in the Middle East and Caucasus.
â€œWe are optimistic about the package of proposals prepared by official Ankara to ensure stability in the Caucasus. But the reality is that Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories, carried out ethnic cleansing in those territories, destroyed historical and cultural monuments, carried out the process of illegal settlement in Karabakh, exploited natural resources and created conditions for transnational crimes in the regions beyond the international control, all this contradicts human values, principles of peace, democracy, stability and regional cooperation, international legal norms,â€ the appeal says.

According to the appeal, Armenian government in words made goodwill promises to Turkish leadership, and continues its campaign of slander against the entire Turkic world.
â€œWe do not doubt that Turkish authorities have enough information about it. Just because of these reasons Turkey did not established diplomatic relations or agreed to open borders with Armenia for years. Azerbaijani state and society have always taken pride in Turkeyâ€™s confidence. But Azerbaijani intellectuals are concerned over the recent media reports that Turkey will open borders with Armenia. We regard the realization of this probability as a case contradicting the national interests of the Turkish people and the entire Turkic world. We state that opening of borders with Armenia is inadmissible and consider that it will be disrespect to the historical traditions and moral values of Turkic nation to establish relations with Armenia, which had territorial claims against its neighbors since its establishment, which continues to occupy Azerbaijani territories, has false genocide claims against Turkish people and offers all kinds of assistance to PKK terrorist organization. This concession will not make Armenia give up claims against Turkey. The action of the ruling Justice and Development Party may have a negative impact on the relations expressed by the principle â€œone nation â€“ two statesâ€, the appeal says.
Azerbaijani intellectuals protest against opening of borders and establishing relations with Armenia.
â€œWe assess these efforts as steps contradicting the will of Turkish people and a serious blow on historical relations with Turkey. We call on Turkey, which is close to Azerbaijan in terms of language, religion and cultural values, to preserve objectivity with respect to Armeniaâ€™s aggressive policy. We hope Turkish government will be attentive towards this issue and take a step in line with common interests of the Turkic world.â€
The appeal was signed by the employees of Azerbaijan National Academy of sciences and members of Azerbaijan Writers Union.