Azadlig: Official Ankara launches ‘‘compromising’’ attack on Aliyev
The influential Turkish newspaper “Hurriyet” published a critical article about the Aliyev clan after the official visit of President Ilham Aliyev to Turkey. As the Azerbaijani newspaper "Azadlig" notes, in the friendly Turkish press never had appeared such an article even during the times when there was a tension between the Turkish – Azerbaijani relations. The fact that the article appeared immediately after Aliyev’s departure from Ankara is not a coincidence.
According to the newspaper, Baku and Ankara cannot agree on the elimination of the visa regime issue between the two countries as well as the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border. The issue of facilitation of visa regime of Baku still torpedoes under various pretexts.
During the visit, Aliyev linked it with "technical reasons", while a similar process runs with the European countries without problems, and this angered Turkey. Experts believe that Iran has recently closed its border with Azerbaijan based on similar considerations.
Turkey is trying to solve the issue concerning the opening of the Armenian border as quickly as possible. If previously Turkey linked this issue to the Karabakh conflict, now it is no longer topical and Ankara is just waiting for Baku’s consent, laying on it all the responsibility for the delay.
"And though Turkey showed a good reception to Ilham Aliyev, there are still some unsolved issues between Baku and Ankara. Turkey wants to resolve these issues as quick as possible. Ilham Aliyev, by defending the interests of the ruling clan only, exacerbates even further the problems existing between him and Turkey. It is obvious that Turkey's patience is running out and Ankara has launched a ‘‘compromising’’ attack on President Ilham Aliyev," the newspaper writes.