Turkish Hürriyet publishes the interview with Nick Baird, British Ambassador to Turkey.

“If Turkey’s Kurdish, Armenian and Cyprus issues are resolved, the region will be much better off,” the daily presents the opinion of the outgoing UK Ambassador to Ankara. Baird supposes Turkey makes large progress “in solving the points of contention”.

“If we could over the next year really start addressing these three big issues, then the region will be in a much better position,” Baird stated.

As to Turkey’s efforts to settle relations with Armenia, the Ambassador said the government “was very courageous to take that step.” However, the process was frozen due to Azerbaijan’s pressure upon Turkey on NKR conflict.

“My sense is now that probably we have to make progress on that [Nagorno-Karabakh] issue in order to take a step forward in the Armenian road map more generally,” the Ambassador said.

“In April, both Turkey and Armenia announced a road map to normalize their troubled relations, saying they achieved tangible progress and mutual understanding in talks. Ankara’s move drew criticism from Azerbaijan, which argues that opening the border will block a settlement in Nagorno-Karabakh. Opposition to the road map, both inside Turkey and from Baku, prompted Ankara to return to its original position, with the prime minister assuring that the border would not be opened before a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute”, the newspaper reads.

“I didn’t think they have very much choice, frankly. Turkey has good relations with Azerbaijan and it is trying to build better relations with the Armenians. You cannot choose one over another. I mean, you’ve basically got to, for the purposes of regional stability, take these things forward together. We’ll be strongly urging the United States and the Minsk Group mediating a solution between Azerbaijan and Armenia to reach an agreement now,” Baird stated, commenting on Ankara’s position on both issues.

The daily reminds that Great Britain is one of the strongest supporters of Turkey to join EU. “While Cypriot leaders are preparing for the give-and-take in October to reunify their divided island, the Brussels deadline to review Ankara’s performance in complying with Ankara protocol obligations is nearing. Turkey hopes a solution will be reached on Cyprus by the end of this year, which will give it an upper hand in its rocky EU journey,” Hürriyet reports.

“We very much hope that progress will be made in the autumn. The [Cypriot] leaders have now finished their first reading of all the issues, which means that they are now moving to serious negotiations. I do think you have a situation where you have two leaders who genuinely want a settlement,” said Baird, adding: “They don’t agree yet on what that settlement looks like, but the will is there. That’s my strong impression. I met them both personally myself.”
Concerning the Turkey’s joining EU, Nick Baird outlined: “We must ensure that whatever happens this process continues but to get a solution by the autumn would put a lot more momentum into this process and that’s what we really want because we’ve had three quite difficult, quite slow years.”

Turkish-Cypriot talks were blocked on 8 chapters due to Ankara’s refusal of opening its ports for Greek Cyprus transport. So far, Turkey dialogued on 11 points, formally starting negotiations in October 2005.
“If Turkey can make progress in such a way as to unfreeze those chapters, then that would really give extra momentum to the process,” Baird concluded.