Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ANKARA: All Smiles In First Gul-Aliyev Meeting After WikiLeaks Dump

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ANKARA: All Smiles In First Gul-Aliyev Meeting After WikiLeaks Dump

    ALL SMILES IN FIRST GUL-ALIYEV MEETING AFTER WIKILEAKS DUMP

    Today's Zaman
    Dec 2 2010
    Turkey

    President Abdullah Gul met with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham
    Aliyev, and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on the
    sidelines of the OSCE summit in Astana on Wednesday.

    President Abdullah Gul had his first bilateral talks on Wednesday
    in Astana with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, who was
    reported to have voiced remarks critical of the current Turkish
    government in US diplomatic cables released recently by WikiLeaks,
    a whistleblower website.

    Following the release of a large number of sensitive US diplomatic
    cables by the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website, Gul met with Aliyev
    on the sidelines of the Organization for Security and Cooperation
    in Europe (OSCE) summit in Kazakhstan's capital of Astana, where
    both discussed the currently stalled Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
    a territorial dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

    Speaking to a group of Turkish journalists on the sidelines of
    the summit in Astana, Gul said Aliyev denied the report during
    their meeting. Gul said Aliyev expressed his dismay over the cables
    presenting him as being critical of Erdogan. "He denied the veracity
    of the documents and expressed his sadness," Gul said.

    Documents leaked by WikiLeaks late on Sunday revealed Aliyev expressing
    distaste for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government, calling
    Turkish foreign policy "naive" and its initiatives a "failure." But
    the Azerbaijani side denied the fact that Aliyev had talked about
    "third" countries during his meeting with US administration
    officials. "Aliyev, as a rule, does not usually talk about third
    countries in his meetings," Novruz Mammadov, head of international
    relations at the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, said.

    Gul also congratulated his Azerbaijani counterpart on the recent
    parliamentary elections, which he defined as "successful." The
    Azerbaijani ruling party, which Aliyev chairs, won a landslide
    victory in the Nov. 7 general elections, making the party a majority
    in parliament for the fourth time.

    The cables disclosed that Aliyev spelled out the reasons why Azerbaijan
    decided to sell gas to Russia last year, noting that "'Moscow had asked
    and offered a good price for gas that was a surplus anyway." But the
    real reason, the cable quotes Aliyev, was that the sale illustrated to
    "our Turkish friends" that they will not be allowed to create a gas
    distribution hub.

    Gul defined Aliyev's alleged remarks as "contrary to the nature of
    the job," as he referred to Azerbaijan's current cooperation with
    Turkey on energy projects. "Why would Aliyev not want energy lines
    to pass through Turkey?" Gul asked.

    "Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan is working. This brings them much income. If
    the Nabucco gas pipeline also passes through Turkey, Azerbaijan's
    energy resources will reach lucrative markets. In this sense, I told
    him not to be sad. Even if you hadn't said they weren't true, we did
    not believe them anyway," Gul noted.




    From: A. Papazian
Working...
X