To my surprise and dismay, the two other participants were vehemently against Turkish President Abdullah Gül’s Yerevan visit and, in no uncertain terms, voiced their opposition to opening our borders with Armenia. True, it should have been no surprise that Ankara’s entrenched power elite does not want rapprochement with Yerevan, but still, I thought the positive atmosphere in the aftermath of the Gül visit had somewhat mollified such resistance. I was wrong.

This is rather ironic because Turkey’s proactive policy in the Caucasus has been appreciated and welcomed by our European and American friends. We have heard nothing but praise from most of our foreign counterparts on Gül’s visit to Armenia. Indeed, Turkey’s Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform (CSCP) served as a useful backdrop to President Gül and Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan’s innovative “football diplomacy.” We even heard some Europeans pointing to the need to anchor Turkey firmly into the European Union by accelerating the negotiation process. Indeed, if there was a winner emerging from the Russia-Georgia crisis, it was Turkey. The conflict once again underscored the geostrategic significance of Turkey to our European friends.

Our policy toward Armenia is very much in line with our overall policy toward our neighbors. It is widely known that Turkey has been striving to reintegrate into its immediate neighborhood by increasing its trade and political dialogue with its neighbors. There were two exceptions to the overall success of this policy: Armenia and Greek Cyprus. We are now working to remedy this. President Gül’s visit to Yerevan should be seen as the beginning of new relationships in the South Caucasus that are complementary to our overall policy in the region. In tandem with the intellectual underpinnings of this policy, we first aim to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia and then open our border with the country. Needless to say, this is all done in coordination with Azerbaijan and thus will eventually necessitate simultaneous progress in Karabakh, particularly on the seven regions of Azerbaijan proper which are occupied by Armenia. We hope that Sarksyan will maintain his interest in resolving the problems in the Southern Caucasus, finally allowing this region to integrate into the European geopolitical space. At this point it is necessary to emphasize that Turkey is genuinely interested in normalizing its relations with our neighbor Armenia. As the region’s leading power, Turkey has the self-confidence to reach out to our Armenian friends.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan’s meeting with his Azerbaijani and Armenian counterparts in New York went well, and the three ministers have agreed to meet again, probably in late October. As President Gül has said, we are quite hopeful about this new resolution process. The many years of futile efforts under the Minsk Group appear to have come to an end in the sober climate of the Russia-Georgia crisis. Turkey has risen to the occasion, and it is now up to Armenia and Azerbaijan to agree to a workable deal that will hopefully anchor the South Caucasus to Europe. We know that all three states of the South Caucasus genuinely desire this. Now is the time to show magnanimous leadership and untie the Caucasus knot.