Azerbaijan, Baku, April 2 /Trend News, J. Babayeva/
Azerbaijani intellectuals believe that opening the Turkey-Armenia border will not have a positive impact on the resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
"The thaw in Turkey-Armenia relations will have a negative effect on Nagorno-Karabakh. Opening the border will only strengthen Armenia. Nagorno-Karabakh will become an embalmed conflict rather than a frozen one," Azerbaijan Intellectuals Union Chairman Eldaniz Guliyev told Trend News.
Turkey's SABAH newspaper quoted an anonymous EU official as saying that he hopes the Turkey-Armenia border will open following U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Turkey in April.
Obama will make a trip to Turkey on April 5-7.
Guliyev does not agree with reports that no talks will be held on Nagorno-Karabakh after the borders open.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Guliyev added that Turkey has displayed instability on the political arena on several occasions.
"Turkey is not ambivalent about Azerbijan, its brotherly nation, which shares a common language and religion. But opening the Turkey-Armenia border will call into question our relations," he said.
"Opening the borders is Turkey's domestic affair. However, it holds historic significance for Azerbaijan. Turkey is partly to blame for the reasons that led to Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenians dealt Azerbaijan the blow that they were not able to deal Turkey. This resulted in our present-day situation. Turkey should take this into consideration and take reasonable steps," Guliyev said.
Turkey's alignment with Armenia will result in cooling relations with Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijani member of parliament and poet Sabir Rustamkhanli said the statements claiming that opening the Turkey-Armenia border will have a positive impact on Nagorno-Karabakh are nonsense.
"Armenia's major demand against Turkey is to force it to admit the so-called 'Armenian Genocide.' Armenian officials say opening the borders has nothing to do with the genocide. The same can be said about Nagorno-Karabakh," Rustamkhanli said.
Rustamkhanli said opening the borders will affect Turkey-Azerbaijan ties.
"But Azerbaijan and Turkey has always maintained fraternal relations. Even the grossest mistakes will not undermine them," he said.
Azerbaijani national poet and member of parliament Vagif Samadoglu told Trend News that under what terms the borders will be opened remains unclear.
"Armenia will not give up its geographical and historical claims to Turkey. The Turkish president and intellectuals know this," Samadoglu said.
Samadoglu said Armenians consider themselves wise.
Opening the borders will paralyze Armenia's already weak economy, he added.
Opening Armenia-Turkey border will cool Azerbaijan-Turkey relations, he said.
"However, these relations rest on a long history, and not one single incident. Our relations will of course continu," he said.
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