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Newspaper Sabah: Generals are behind the Turkeyâ€™s hardening position toward Armenia

22 May 2009 08:37 (UTC +04:00)

According to newspaper Sabah, controlled by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoganâ€™s son-in-law Berat Albayrak, generalship played important role in the changing of position, APA reports. Developments at the National Security Councilâ€™s last meeting forced Erdogan to visit Azerbaijan and to assure Baku that the borders with Armenia will not be opened until the solution of Nagorny Karabakh problem while progress toward the unconditional opening of Turkish-Armenian borders, said Sabah. The generals sent concrete message to Erdogan at the meeting on April 28: â€œWe want the development of normalization process between Turkey and Armenia, but we canâ€™t lose Azerbaijan. There may be some discords, but it is impossible for Turkey to give up Azerbaijanâ€.

Chief of the Turkish General Staff, Army General Ilker Basbug made the armyâ€™s position on this issue public at the last press conference. Basbug said the normalization of relations with Armenia was not possible until the withdrawal of Armenian forces from Azerbaijan.