Erdogan urges Karabakh pullout before signing deal with Armenia

Turk PM says move is necessary for parliament’s support of accord

Members of Turkey’s Armenian community attend Sunday Mass at the Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church in Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday.

By Alexandra Hudson - Reuters

ISTANBUL - Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday that Armenia must withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan to assure his parliament's approval for a peace accord signed between Turkey and Armenia.

«Turkey cannot take a positive step toward Armenia unless Armenia withdraws from Azerbaijani land... if that issue is solved, our people and our parliament will have a more positive attitude toward this protocol and this process,» Erdogan told a party congress in Ankara.

Turkey and Armenia signed an accord on Saturday aimed at restoring ties and opening their shared border. Last-minute disagreements delayed the signing for more than three hours, forcing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to engage in intense talks to salvage a deal.

The Turkish and Armenian parliaments must approve the accord in the face of opposition from nationalists on both sides and an Armenian Diaspora that insists Turkey acknowledge the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War I as genocide.

«We will bring the protocol to parliament but parliament has to see the conditions between Azerbaijan and Armenia to decide whether this protocol can be implemented,» Erdogan said.

Turkey cut ties and shut its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, which was then fighting a losing battle against Armenian separatists in Karabakh.

In his comments, Erdogan looked to reassure ally Azerbaijan, which reacted angrily to the deal, saying it could threaten security and «cast a shadow» over its relations with Ankara.

«The normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia before the withdrawal of Armenian troops from occupied Azeri territory is in direct contradiction to the national interests of Azerbaijan,» the Azeri Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

In a strongly worded statement, the ministry said the deal «casts a shadow over the fraternal relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey,» which have historical roots.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian signed the Swiss-mediated deal in Zurich at a ceremony also attended by European Union foreign policy Chief Javier Solana, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

In a statement yesterday, Lavrov welcomed the accord, saying Russia was happy and would lend support.

«The essence of the documents is evidence of both countries' firm resolve to do their part... Not one of the steps can be interpreted as damaging to any third party,» he said.

If the agreement comes into effect, it would boost European Union-candidate Turkey's diplomatic clout in the volatile South Caucasus, a transit corridor for oil and gas to the West.

Turkish officials told Reuters the two sides had many disagreements over statements each was due to make in Zurich, including oblique references to the Karabakh conflict. In the end, neither Davutolgu nor Nalbadian made public statements.

Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Media Institute in Yerevan, said in reaction to Erdogan's speech: «The Turkish side needs to play to its domestic audience. Erdogan and other political figures have made such statements often enough... It's a fact that neither the word Karabakh nor Azerbaijan appears in the documents that were signed.»

Although landlocked Armenia stands to make big gains, opening its impoverished economy to trade and investment, Armenia's leader Serzh Sarksyan faces protests at home and from the huge Armenian Diaspora, which views the thaw with suspicion.

JERUSALEM (AP) - Turkey has canceled an annual multinational air force drill that would have included the US and NATO because it opposed Israeli participation, the Israeli military said yesterday, in a sign of further deterioration in relations between the two countries.

Turkey, a secular country ruled by an Islamic-oriented party, had long been Israel's closest ally in the Muslim world. But ties have suffered since Israel's winter war against Islamic Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, which killed hundreds of civilians.

A brief statement posted on the Turkish military's website said the annual Anatolia Eagle drill would take place October 10-23 but that international participation had been canceled after «international negotiations conducted by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.» The statement did not elaborate.

Turkish military officials were not available for comment, and a government spokesman said he had nothing to add to the military's statement.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the drill was delayed indefinitely «because of Turkey's decision to change the list of participating countries, thus excluding Israel.»

The exercise was to have been the sixth annual maneuver of its kind. The military said it was also to have included US, Italian and NATO forces.

Israeli defense officials said Ankara canceled the drill after the US pulled out over Ankara's decision to exclude Israel. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon appeared to be trying to keep the heat down, calling Turkey a «very important strategic anchor in the Mideast.» «Certainly its ties with Israel serve the entire region,» Ayalon told Israel Radio, adding that «all of us want a tolerant Turkey that is part of Western civilization, and certainly an antithesis to the Iranian model.»

An Israeli political scientist, Amikam Nachmani, called the Turkish decision «a warning bell» and said it was notable because Turkey had never before disturbed its military ties with Israel, though it has criticized the country.