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Sassounian: Azerbaijan Slams Turkish President for Congratulating Sarkisian

While Armenia is grappling with the fallout from the Feb. 18 presidential voting and trying to accommodate a newly energized opposition, its two hostile neighbors, Azerbaijan and Turkey, are entangled in a feud over the Armenian election.

Sadikov complained that Turkish President Abdullah Gul (pictures above) had sent a congratulatory letter to Azerbaijani President Serge Sarkisian on his re-election.
Sadikov complained that Turkish President Abdullah Gul (pictures above) had sent a congratulatory letter to Armenian President Serge Sarkisian on his re-election.

A year ago, in a column titled, “Who Rules Turkey: Erdogan or Aliyev?” I expressed my astonishment that Turkey was allowing Azerbaijan to repeatedly interfere in its sovereign policies, as in the case of the Armenia-Turkey protocols. Now there are two fresh examples of Azerbaijan’s unwarranted interference in Turkish decision-making.

No sooner had Turkish Airlines announced that it would distribute a copy of Agos, a bilingual Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper, to its international passengers, that Fikret Sadikov, an Azeri professor and political analyst, objected to its dissemination, calling it an “absolutely absurd and irresponsible gesture.”

Sadikov also complained that Turkish President Abdullah Gul had sent a congratulatory letter to Armenian President Serge Sarkisian on his re-election. “Such steps would cause great sorrow both in Turkey and Azerbaijan,” Sadikov told Trend, an Azeri publication. Sadikov’s objection was part of a larger campaign orchestrated by Azeri leaders, accusing Turkey of undermining their efforts to pressure Armenia into making territorial concessions regarding Artsakh (Karabagh).

Here are some of the objections leveled at Gul by leading Azeri officials:

— “Turkey must clarify the issue of Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s sending congratulations to his Armenian counterpart Serge Sarkisian,” stated Novruz Mammadov, the chief foreign policy advisor of the Azerbaijani president.

— “This hurt us. … It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that no matter how many signs of politeness may be expressed to Armenia, it uses it for other purposes,” stated Oqtay Asadov, the speaker of Azerbaijan’s Parliament.

— “We didn’t expect this. … It is regrettable that the president of Turkey, a strategic partner of Azerbaijan, hastily congratulated Sarkisian, who was elected as a result of fraud,” stated Mubariz Gurbanli, a member of parliament and deputy executive secretary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party.

— “Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s sending of congratulations before the official announcement of the results is the wrong step. This is the continuation of Turkey’s zero-problem policy with neighboring states. But, actually this policy failed. With this policy, Turkey’s relations with most of the states in the region have become tense. Moreover, the Turkish president’s congratulations to Sarkisian contradict the interests of Azerbaijan. At a time when the international community is expressing views that an illegitimate government exists in Armenia, the Turkish government sealed the legitimacy of the Armenian leadership. This is wrong and regrettable,” stated Arif Hajili, central executive board member of Azerbaijan’s Musavat Party.

— “If someone thinks that Armenia and Armenians will give up the so-called genocide and territorial claims thanks to these steps, they are mistaken,” stated Gudrat Hasanguliyev, chairman of the United Azerbaijan Popular Front Party.

— “President Gul’s congratulations of Serge Sarkisian was a hasty decision,” stated Nizami Jafarov, a parliament member and head of the working group on inter-parliamentary relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

— “This step will not gain Turkey positive assessment by the global community. Turkey can be sure of it. Congratulating Serge Sarkisian was a hasty step. This is not in the national interest of either Azerbaijan or Turkey,” stated parliament member Fazail Aghamali.

— ” Serge Sarkisian is Turkey’s enemy. He accuses Turkey of so-called Armenian genocide and makes territorial claims. It is not clear why Abdullah Gul decided to be one of the first to congratulate Sarkisian on his re-election. This is unacceptable,” stated Vafa Guluzade, the foreign policy advisor to the former president of Azerbaijan.

Rather than lash back at the undue Azeri interference in Turkey’s decisions, the Turkish Foreign Ministry sheepishly explained that Gul’s congratulatory letter to Pres. Sarkisian was “a diplomatic courtesy and a gesture of goodwill.” Gul had also congratulated Sarkisian’s first presidential election in 2008.

How long will the all-powerful Turkish government, which projects its political, economic, and military clout far and wide, tolerate Azerbaijan’s repeated interference in Turkey’s policies? When will Ankara dare to tell Baku to mind its own business and make it clear that Turkey will not subordinate its national interests to Azerbaijan’s self-centered wishes?

Armenia is fortunate that, while it is dealing with the repercussions of the presidential election, its two hostile neighbors, Azerbaijan and Turkey, are busy feuding with each other!

Harut Sassounian

Harut Sassounian

California Courier Editor
Harut Sassounian is the publisher of The California Courier, a weekly newspaper based in Glendale, Calif. He is the president of the Armenia Artsakh Fund, a non-profit organization that has donated to Armenia and Artsakh one billion dollars of humanitarian aid, mostly medicines, since 1989 (including its predecessor, the United Armenian Fund). He has been decorated by the presidents of Armenia and Artsakh and the heads of the Armenian Apostolic and Catholic churches. He is also the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
15 Comments (Open | Close)

15 Comments To "Sassounian: Azerbaijan Slams Turkish President for Congratulating Sarkisian"

#1 Comment By gaytzag palandjian On February 26, 2013 @ 2:13 pm

Dear Harut,
I wouldn´t accept and easily believe that the two brothers contradictions are legitimate,real .They fake all these Theatrical performances in order to throw us of track. Fact of the matter is that Baku woul not dare make move w/rgds to RA or Artsakh diplomatically or otherwise,without the previous consent and support of great Turkey.
After latter hs a few times openly declared that we are ONE NATION in TWO states.Pretty much Ra and Artsakh now .
Thence to fathom that Baku´s policies are different than those of great Turkey rather premature conjectures.
What´s more what do we earn by either being a bit (at least outwardly) benevolent??? towards us,when neither has so far regretted and asked pardon for what their previous govt.s and lately quite lately the little borther´s done…
I say, wait untill time when great Turkey actually extends acknowledgement of the Genocide perpetrated by their previous Govt.s to us Armenians and then a s a result of same begin to make compensations/restitution.
A dream? or far fetched hypothesis? not so.As ,not too far back one of their pres. ,I believe Turgut Ozañ(you know better this) had hinted that VAN(only?)should be given to Armenians.This coinciding with the ¨´corectional acts of violence¨by our ¨crazy youngmen¨….
Not that I in any way suggest latter.Not any more they did that when time was corect then and later joine up with the freedom fighters of NK.Now other types of counter attacks are in…that of our media wise to begin ASAP on the threshold of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Goghgota(genocide)
rgds,g.p

#2 Comment By jda On February 26, 2013 @ 5:51 pm

Why is so much public and political Turkish and Azeri dsocourse framed with meaningless self-indulgent blather about the speaker’s “hurt feelings”. “Insult” this and hurt feelings that.

Anybody in Turkey, it seems, gets hurt feelings if you say you dislike kebabs, Genocide, the defeat of the Seljuks, madzoon, the invasion of Cyprus or Turkish taffy. It goes for anything big or small. Open a court case because my neighbor dislikes Turkish towels or says Van cats are Armenian. Sue!

Worse still, it is always the most violent and regressive men of these societies – those little fat SuperMario looking guys – who ordinarily hand out the most violence and make the worst threats, who also always claim to be insulted and whine loudest about nothing close to offensive.

How do these super Macho little dudes and occasional dude-ettes square their alleged inner Genghiz with their outer Oprahs? Maybe they should all change their name to Caitlin and get therapy.

I guess stoicism died in 1453. It was never a Turkish concept anyway.

#3 Comment By john On February 27, 2013 @ 4:46 pm

its called low self esteem…

#4 Comment By RVDV On February 26, 2013 @ 8:19 pm

The Azerbaijani government acts like a little kid, kicking and screaming. Perhaps the Turkish FM can let their Azeri counterparts know that we have plenty of other options for oil and natural gas.

#5 Comment By Ararat On February 27, 2013 @ 2:07 am

The question is: How long will Turkey subcontract its foreign policy toward Armenia to the artificial state of Axerbaijan? The answer is: Until the Axerbaijani oil fields dry up.

We can clearly see the kinship displayed by these two anti-Armenian racist nations, Turkey and Axerbaijan, is as false as their illegal and artificial states, respectively. Make no mistake about it, these two genocidal and racist nations will continue to use each other to the detriment of the Armenians.

These pathetic Axerbaijani psychopathic leaders are so hopeless and desperate that all they can do is to act like hyenas always looking for scraps from Turkish preys. Like hyenas they will keep looking to Turkey for their next prey to feed on and if they don’t get their share they will blackmail Turkey with cheap oil.

The fabricated state of Axerbaijan has no relevance in this world other than being an oil-depot for the Turks and Europe to exploit. Armenia and Artsakh must stand strong against these delusional and racist Axerbaijani laughable leaders and never waver.

Let the Axerbaijani dogs bark while the Armenian caravan moves on!

#6 Comment By Kerim On February 27, 2013 @ 7:48 pm

@Ararat, I refuse to believe that one must be an Azeri or Turk to see the hypocrasy in your post — you call us racist and yet … just re-read your post. I have nothing futher to say. I feel like I have just witnessed a peson running through a full room, naked without even realizing it, and instead calling all the others the naked ones. It is a sad sight.

@RVDV, no, they are not acting like a child. They know what they are doing. They are putting pressure on Turkey not to do what is against our national iterests. All governments do that or should do that. And no, Turkey is not keeping the border closed because they love us. It is its own pressure tool to get better gas prices from us, and use it as a negotiating chip to avoid genocide recognition. At the very least, it gives them a cover to evade US pressure (“Look, we are working on normalizing the relations.”) But it will never happen. Besides, why do you care? If I recall correctly, you are not even a Turk, but a Kurd. Am I sense a Stockhold syndrome here? That Turkey is respectful towards minorities is the overstatement of the century.

#7 Comment By jda On February 28, 2013 @ 7:27 pm

Please direct me to comparable statements by Armenian leaders of any sort about Azeris. Please also explain to me why a mere statement of congrtulation is worth condemnation.

Those of you Azeris who have a genocidal hatred of Armenians might ask yourself: what has my governemnt and its multi-billionaires done to help the civilians displaced from Artsakh? Would they prefer these people suffer so that they can be used, or would they prefer to treat them decently.

Do they distract me from their theft of the national wealth by screaming, but never actuallly going to war? Why don’t they go to war?

Its obvious they don’t go to war because win or lose – and they will lose – they will lose their biggest distraction. If they lose, the military will kill them and steal their money, and the minorities will secede.

Such Azeris love the perpetual state of near-war, but hate actual war as much as peace. All they love is stolen money.

#8 Comment By RVDV On February 28, 2013 @ 9:26 pm

http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-264103-do-dersimites-display-the-stockholm-syndrome.html

“The second question that Prime Minister Erdoğan’s apology raises is why, despite the massacres committed during the single party rule of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Dersim, or Tunceli province, has, most of the time, voted in favor of that party ever since introduction of multi-party politics in 1950. This is not because the Alevi Kurds of Dersim display the Stockholm syndrome (having positive feelings towards their oppressors), but because, like Turkish Alevis, they have not forgotten the legacy of persecution in the Ottoman Empire, especially after the 16th century, when the Ottoman sultans also became caliph, the religious leader of the Sunni Muslim world. This is also particularly because as a religious minority they regard the CHP as a counterbalance to governments dominated by the Sunni majority, even if that same CHP is responsible not only for the massacres against them during the single party period, but also for the strict adherence to an authoritarian concept of secularism that has until today denied official recognition of Alevis’ religious identity.”

That about sums it up.

And why does a Persianized Turk like you have such a negative opinion of Turkey? Not to mention that you guys don’t like Iran either. How much do you think you have to prove to the world?

#9 Comment By GB On February 28, 2013 @ 11:31 pm

unlike Axeri Turks, Turkey learnt a lot from Christan Europe, where Axeri tatars learnt the ruthless of communism, Leninism and Stalinism, but both share same Altai racist culture. Turks pretends they don’t, but Axeris don’t know how international laws work against their lies, especially against Sultan Aliyev and his beloved corrupt family members, and stupid oily paid politicians!!

#10 Comment By Ararat On March 1, 2013 @ 2:29 am

Kerim,

I am not in the least bit surprised by your remark. I am not the one running around the room naked; it is you making baseless judgments with your blinders on. I am not racist and I use harsh language because I despise the racial enemies of the Armenian people with outmost passion.

You read and make remarks on Armenian news websites, such as this one, and as you can see they are rather balanced and perhaps one out of twenty news headlines may be about what I call our racial enemies. I read Axerbaijani news websites and if you take out all the belligerent and relentless racist remarks about the Armenians, all of them by government officials or others affiliated by the government, they would have nothing new to report.

I know for a fact the Axerbaijanis are obsessed with and consumed by the Armenians and won’t miss a chance to denigrate and put our people down just because they are unable to digest the defeat handed to them. The Axerbaijanis are caught in a quagmire unable to get out of and that’s all because they are being brainwashed by their thievish and autocratic criminal leaders making up stories about the Armenians and falsifying history to prolong hostilities while they rob their people blind.

Just to give you an example of what I am talking about, on one racist government-sponsored Axerbaijani website, on the occasion of the khojali incident perpetrated and committed by the Axerbaijani Popular Front, I recently read that the murder of 1,500,000 Armenians never happened and that instead 5,000,000 Turks and 2,000,000 Axerbaijanis were killed by the Armenians. Imagine that, a total of 7,000,000 Turks and pseudo-Turkish Axerbaijanis were killed by less than 3,000,000 Armenians, 1.5 million of whom were exterminated and the rest deported and made orphans, at the turn of the last century.

There are many more examples and falsifications like this. There is a pattern here and I call them as I see them. You, on the other hand, are unable to take criticism when it comes from someone who knows what he is talking about and won’t back down and sugar-coat things.

#11 Comment By gaytzag palandjian On March 1, 2013 @ 12:48 pm

Hey there Avery….
What does this man with his 2headed eagle sign next to him *Russians use that, say re us Armenians don’t like Iran either and *those persianized turks…
Armenians have always since the last war with Persia* 1,500 yrs ago been tolerant with ea other.Only once in the middle of those centuries Shah abbas the Great with airs of expansian invaded Armenia…however not destroying armenian churches and/or murdering armenians,but carefully and clverly took from next door Julfa thousands of Armenians to his New Julfa next to Ispahan in order that the Armenian craftsmen etc., would teach his countrymen..
Not one hair of these Armenians was pulled pout by the Persians SINCE THEN…understand Mr.RVDV w/ Two headed eagle sign next to your name…
You cannot change history AND OR REALITY.PLEASE GO TO IRAN AND ENJOY THE AR,MENIAN TOWN NEW JULFA NEXT TO ISFAHAN!!!!!!their museums,. churches schools and on top of that two vbery important MONASTERIES UP NORT OF IRAN,wehre the persianized turks live…HAVE BEEN ENTIRELY , TWO TIMES REPAIRED….by Govt. of Iran…
Soon very soon the railway connecting Iran’s Southrn ssea port will be connected to Yerevan,thus facilitating Armenia to ship and receive by ocean gpoing steamers/ships with the world.Also a NEW HYDRO ELECTRIC PLANT ON THE RIVER ARAX *ARAS ON THE iRANO ARMENIAN FRONTIER….

#12 Comment By RVDV On March 4, 2013 @ 1:31 am

Mr. Palandjian

Did you see who I was replying to? That person is not an Armenian. So if that person is not Armenian, my comments were not about Armenia/Armenians then, right?

#13 Comment By gaytzag palandjian On March 4, 2013 @ 9:30 am

RVDV,
My mistake,I apolagize.But please clarify what your nationality is and your name.

#14 Comment By RVDV On March 4, 2013 @ 1:15 pm

I am a Kurdish Alevi that chooses to identify as a Turk, and I consider myself a Turk,not a Kurd.

#15 Comment By sylva-MD-Poetry On March 13, 2015 @ 6:21 pm

To Mr. RVDV
Kurdish people have genes …There is no Turkish gene in Turkey
may be in Turkmanistan …There is Mongul gene…
Because Seljuk Turks arrived and raped Armenians, Greeks, European …and their genes are changed…
So if you call your self Turkish this is your nationality… which is on paper only …
Do your DNA and see where you belong …and don’t be proud that you are a Turk…!
Those days are changed …be scientific…please…