The issue of Armenia divides Gul and Erdogan

This idea was expressed by columnist of “Sabah” newspaper Yavuz Baydar, according to whom in the visible future there will not be developments concerning Armenian-Turkish relations.

“Sabah” newspaper columnist Yavuz Baydar during the “Armenia-Turkey – politics and media discussions” forum, assessing the parliamentary election in Turkey, said that after 2002 the voting characteristics had not changed – the people continued to vote for stability and gradual soft changes and that was the reason why every other voter had given his vote for the Justice and Development Party that he characterized as the unity of the Muslim democrats. “This is a political force that manages a powerful economy”, assessed Yavuz Baydar. “The strengthened middle class that wants to preserve the achieved voted for that party.” According to him, the ruling party is also an opposition to the former totalitarian regime.
The columnist went all out to praise the foreign policy of the Justice and Development Party characterizing it as “pragmatic”. And speaking of the expectations one may have from the Justice and Development Party, he said, “It is doubtless that Erdogan will remain the leading actor.” According to him, Gul’s role in the party weakened after this election, “However Gul will continue to remain one of the leading actors in the upcoming years.” In Yavuz Baydar’s assessment, there are issues, the attitude toward which unites Gul and Erdogan, as, for example, the Kurdish issue is, “However the issues like, for example, Armenia, actually divide them.” He also mentioned that although Gul had weakened in the parliamentary field, “He is very popular and respected in the national structures of the Justice and Development Party in the regions.”
At “Aravot’s” request, referring to the predictions of the analysts that have not taken place yet that after the election ends Erdogan will return to the Armenian-Turkish relations settlement issue, Yavuz Baydar said, “I do not see that in that regard any move or step forward will be in the short run, at least not before the end of this year. It will be surprising if anything else happens, since the agenda is filled with issues – the constitution, the Kurdish problem. The political agenda will be filled with the European Union membership development report and that kind of developments. I do not think that Erdogan sees any rush in this regard. And perhaps after next January we may see some signs.”    
Concerning the process of Turkey’s EU membership he mentioned that the Cabinet planned to continue fulfilling the obligations, “Nevertheless the Cyprus issue is more important than Armenia and other issues that stand in the way of Turkey’s European Union membership.” And in response to our remark that there are analyses that if there is any step forward in regard to the EU membership, it will have an impact also on the Armenian-Turkish relations, Yavuz Baydar claimed once again, “Cyprus is the main issue now. The EU Presidency will be taken over by Cyprus next July. Therefore this is a very complicated issue now. Turkey wants to accelerate the membership process and the most part of the energy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is spent on the international community, on involving the UN and the EU in the Cyprus issue. That is why in the forthcoming months Cyprus will be the focus of attention.”
He enumerated what problems are debated in the public life of Turkey and the relations settlement with Armenia was out of that list. According to Mr. Baydar, those problems are the limits of the spiritual in the political life, the civil supervision over the armed forces, the role and limits of the ethnic groups in the political life and the freedom of speech, the issues related to the balances between the government forces.