Turkey realizes better than any other country that Armenian policy in the region has been built on an idea of searching for an external enemy, Tahir Taghizadeh, Chief of The Press and Information Policy Department of the Azerbaijan Foreign Office, told Trend commenting the statement of Armenia Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan. Mr. Taghizadeh said that at first this enemy was Turkey, then Azerbaijan, and finally GUAM.
The Armenian Foreign Minister lambasted Turkey state policy on denying the Armenian Genocide, particularly, the fact that Turkey became a more aggressive as the fact of the genocide was acknowledged by an increasing number of countries. Turks have never be so organized on the state level to carry out the denying policy, said Mr. Oskanyan. He admitted that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was a serious barrier for establishing relations with Ankara, and said that Ankara undisputed solidarity with Azerbaijan is working against Turkey itself, since the trust to this country in the Caucasus is under threat, as well as its claims on the role of a bridge between the East and the West.
Mr. Taghizadeh also said that Turkey position in the regional development issues, particularly, in the development of bilateral relations with Armenia was dictated by Turkey principal position to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict based on norms and principles of the international law, and Azerbaijan has always appreciated it.
Regarding that part of the statement where parallels between Nagorno-Karabakh and Cyprus were exemplified, Mr. Taghizadeh said that such parallel is absurd. The case of Nagorno-Karabakh is a direct aggression of one state against another, and the internal element is minimal, i.e. the role of the Karabakh Armenians. Secondly, these two cases are differed from each other with the fact that the Karabakh Armenians together with Armenian Forces had carried out an efficient ethnic clearing out not only on the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, but also on the Azerbaijani bordering territories. Moreover, this clearing out was not only an ethnic one, but also a culture one, said Mr. Taghizadeh.
Having agreed that Cyprus and Armenia see obstacles on Turkey way to EU, Mr. Oskanyan refuted an opinion that these two countries were working against Turkey. We actually have common issues, that have been discussed by us, but we are not about to unite our efforts against somebody, said the Armenian Foreign Minister.
For his part, Mr. Taghizadeh said that if the last words of the Armenian Foreign Minister corresponded with the real policy of official Yerevan, then this position may be only welcomed.