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Azerbaijan President: We are confident that Turkey will not ratify the agreement until Armenia returns Azeri territories

28 January 2010 12:18 (UTC +04:00)

Armenia is pushing for rapid ratification of the deal, signed in October, while Turkey has a longer time frame.
On Wednesday, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said he was confident Turkey wouldn’t ratify the agreement until Armenia has returned Azeri territory that it occupies, including the mainly ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno Karabakh.
"There is a common understanding in the region that there should be a first step by Armenia to start the liberation of the occupied territories," Mr. Aliyev said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He said he was "fully satisfied" with Turkey’s understanding of the issue, despite harshly criticizing Turkey’s handling of it in the past.
"If the two issues are disconnected, then probably Armenia will freeze negotiations with Azerbaijan (over Nagorno Karabakh)," said Mr. Aliyev, adding that he believed economic pressure was one of the main incentives for Armenia to come to the table. Mr. Aliyev has warned previously that such an outcome could lead to renewed war.
Turkey’s leaders, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have said repeatedly that the border opening and settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict are linked.
There is no sign of progress in the 15-year-old peace talks. But some ambiguity remains in Turkey’s position. The territorial dispute isn’t mentioned in October’s protocols.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in protest at the occupation by Armenia-backed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and seven districts around it that were seized as buffer zones. But in the wake of the war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008, Turkey’s government said it was ready to negotiate an end to Armenia’s isolation, as Ankara sought a bigger role in the Caucasus region.
The U.S., Russia and the European Union have strongly backed the Turkish-Armenian initiative, saying it could help to stabilize a region that is strategically important for energy supplies.
The Azeri president also expressed frustration over the delays in construction of the EU’s planned Nabucco pipeline, which would carry natural gas from the Caspian Sea to EU markets via Turkey. "Azerbaijan can export gas in four directions: Turkey, Georgia, Iran and. We can expand volumes of gas in each of these directions. Gazprom has said it will buy whatever we supply. If Nabucco is delayed, we will sell more to Gazprom, it is clear," said Mr. Aliyev, referring to the Russian state gas giant OAO Gazprom.