IN BAKU THEY ARE NOT VERY FRIENDLY TO TURKS

In Ankara they are concerned with murders of Turkish citizens in Azerbaijan.

After the visit to Azerbaijan of Rejeb Erdogan, the leader of the Party of Justice and Development of Turkey, there is certain coldness in the relations between Baku and Ankara. We’ll remind that the Turkish leader has accused Baku authorities of an unwillingness to undertake measures against the branches of the “Kurdish terrorist organizations” operating in the country and to eliminate the obstacles on the way of strengthening the economic contacts between the two countries.

January 21, 2003

PanARMENIAN.Net - The fact that the Turkish businessmen often meet serious difficulties in Azerbaijan, is not only a testimony of the corruptness of the Azerbaijani economy. In Ankara this fact is being comprehended as a proof of the inconsistency of the authorities of Baku, which always speak about creation of a favorable regime for Turkish businessmen, but in fact do nothing. In reality the Turkish capital is unprotected in Azerbaijan. For example, the biggest Turkish investor – “Barmek” company managing the energy system of Azerbaijan, is being discredited by the Baku media.

Lately, the volume of commodity turnover between Turkey and Azerbaijan has reduced twice. Ankara officials explain this first of all by the introduction of a road tax. It is known that the tariff of the road tax for Turkey is twice more than the same tariff for Russia, Ukraine and Georgia. This fact causes the dissatisfaction of the official Ankara. Azerbaijan refuses the demands of Turkey to decrease the tax.

Turkish businessmen are preoccupied not only for their investments but also for their personal security. The cases of murders of Turks have become rather frequent in Baku. Such an incident took place on January 9 when a first grade student of the Azerbaijani Pedagogy University, 21 years old Bulent Chimen and his brother Murad underwent an attack from armed persons. The later has survived by a miracle, while Bulent died in the hospital. Protesting against such attacks, hundreds of Turks held a demonstration behind the Embassy of Turkey in Baku. The participants of the action were demanding from the authorities of Turkey to oblige the Azerbaijani government to prevent the attacks against the Turks.

During the last two years at least three Turkish citizens were killed on the territory Nasiminsk region. In December 2000 about a thousand of Turkish students organized a demonstration on the Central streets of Baku protesting against the murder of their compatriot, 25 years old Dogan Ahmed, a student of the Azerbaijani technical university. The Azerbaijani law enforcement bodies were trying to present the case as a usual murder, while the friends of Ahmed were sure that he was killed by Azeri fans who were dissatisfied with the results of the soccer match between the national teams of Azerbaijan and Turkey. The person accused of the murder, 19 years old Rahib Mamedov, was born in Armenia. This fact allowed the Baku media to start searching an Armenian sign in the incident (we'll note that Mamedov left Armenia when he was only five years old).

The life of businessmen in Baku is not better than that of the students. In April 2001 an attack against Turkish citizen Dikman Mehmet Khakki took place in Baku. And last week a well-known Turkish businessman, Khalid Ozturuk, 41, died in one of the hotels of Baku. He was the owner of a big transport company, “Metro tourism”. According to one of the versions, which is being ignored by the criminal bodies, he was killed. The local media inform that the law enforcement bodies of Turkey insist on the version of a “murder with a knife done by an Azeri woman”.

All the above mentioned facts confirm that the attitude towards Turks is not very friendly in Azerbaijan. In Ankara they do not pretend any more that they do not see those unfriendly expressions. The strict words pronounced by Rejeb Erdogan during his visit to Baku come to prove this. And no one will be surprised, if some actions follow those words.