Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Chairman of Union of Azerbaijani and Turkish Businessmen meets with Turkish journalists in Washington

09 April 2009 09:10 (UTC +04:00)

Washington. Zaur Hasanov â€“ APA. Chairman of the Union of Azerbaijani and Turkish Businessmen (ATIB) Ahmet Erentok and Executive Director of the U.S. Azeris Network Adil Baguirov met with Turkish journalists working in Washington, APAâ€™s US bureau reports. Chairman of ATIB said they supported dialogue among neighboring states and underlined that the process should be accompanied by mutual steps. Ahmet Erentok told Turkish journalists that official Yerevan had not answered Turkeyâ€™s concessions to Armenia since 1993. He mentioned that Turkey closed the borders due to several reasons.
â€œThese reasons were the so-called genocide claims, Armeniaâ€™s refusing to recognize Turkeyâ€™s territorial integrity, occupation of Nagorno Karabakh and surrounding regions of Azerbaijan. What has change since then? Has Armenia released Azerbaijani territories? Has it given up genocide claims? Why does Turkey want to reopen the borders? How will we determine whether Armenians will take steps towards peace in Nagorno Karabakh conflict after the reopening of the borders?â€ he said.

ATIB chairman said the opening of borders would create obstacles between the two peoples, â€œand even new generations couldnâ€™t lift these obstaclesâ€. He said Turkey and Azerbaijan were stronger together and it concerned some countries.
Executive Director of US Azeris Network (USAN) Adil Baguirov focused attention on the economic side of the issue. He said today Turkey and Armenia had $200 million trade turnover. â€œThese relations are covering the flights between Turkey and Armenia, shipment via Georgia and Iran. Therefore the opening of the borders will not promote the trade relations seriously and will not contribute to welfare of border regions, because these relations are in existence alreadyâ€. Baguirov said the opening of the borders had symbolic meaning and would create opinion about Turkey as a country, which agreed under the pressure to violate the interests of friendly country. He said after approaching Armenia, Turkish business will lose access to Russia and Central Asia via Azerbaijan. Baguirov reminded that Armenians didnâ€™t leave their false â€œgenocideâ€ campaign and recently Hawaii also recognized the â€œgenocideâ€. He said if other seven states of the country recognized the â€œgenocideâ€, 1915 events would be automatically recognized throughout the United States and Armenian claims against Turkey would have legal, material and territorial character.