Epress.am News from Armenia
The Turkey-Azerbaijan story is interesting. These two countries describe themselves as “one nation, two states,” a Turkic-tandem, always in harmony with never a cross word. Turkey is the big brother, while Azerbaijan, in the eyes of Ankara, is the little brother, looking admiringly up at Turkey, writes Today’s Zaman columnist Amanda Paul.
However, according to Paul, WikiLeaks contradicts this. The US diplomatic cables released by the whistleblowers’ website over the past week or so indicate that the relationship between Azerbaijan and Turkey is “presently far from harmonious.”
“WikiLeaks released material that describes Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as harshly criticizing Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), including calling their foreign policy ‘naive’ and their initiatives a ‘failure.’ Since then Aliyev has denied everything. The two countries — rather like a Hollywood couple — are maintaining a business as usual appearance,” writes Paul.
The relationship between Turkey and Azerbaijan soured particularly after Turkey signed the protocols for rapprochement with Armenia. “Azerbaijan deeply resented it. The idea that Turkey could open the Armenian border without progress on Nagorno-Karabakh was totally unpalatable. Azerbaijan felt betrayed and went on to use its number one foreign policy tool, ‘oil and gas,’ to put Turkey over a barrel in gas negotiations. With the normalization process with Armenia now frozen, Turkey-Azerbaijan relations are back to normal. Or are they?” asks the Today’s Zaman columnist, who adds that, following conversations with Turkish and Azerbaijan officials, “relations are not as cozy as they are made out to be.”
According to Paul, there are a number of unresolved issues between the two countries: for instance, Azerbaijanis express concern over “creeping conservatism” in Turkey under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) which they believe is being exported to Azerbaijan. Further, Azerbaijan still has a visa regime for Turks.
“They also resent the fact that Turkey seems to begrudge Azerbaijan’s growing importance in the region. For Turkey there can only be one regional hub — itself. Ask Turkish officials how they view Baku and they are more loose lipped — Azerbaijan became too arrogant, or Aliyev is overplaying his cards. After everything that Turkey did for Azerbaijan, what did Azerbaijan ever do for Turkey? They also complain about the Russian ‘footprint’ in Azerbaijan such as too much spoken Russian and Russian schools, and ‘why oh why’ did Azerbaijan not adopt the exact same alphabet as Turkey rather than creating their own with “special” letters. While both are Muslim states, Ankara is seemingly going for the world record for the maximum number of mosques per kilometer. Azerbaijan is keeping this under tight control,” according to Paul.
The columnist concludes by noting that Azerbaijan wants to be recognized in its own right as a country on the rise and a key ally of the West, not as a small brother. It is normal that Turkey and Azerbaijan are always going to have close ties, writes Paul; however, it is also likely that many officials in Ankara and Baku would not be against a change of leadership in the other’s country.
“[Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan would like somebody more like himself (impossible) while Baku would welcome a more Kemalist regime. They both may have to wait some time yet,” concludes the columnist.