Ex-Ambassador: Ozal sent us to Baku to recognize the state independence of Azerbaijan

Turan: In your 800-page book "Azerbaijan" published by Bilgi Publishing House in April 2011, you wrote in detail about the processes before and after the declaration of independence. Is it possible to share with our readers the important moments that you remember from that period?

Şimşir: In the process of the collapse of the USSR, the most eagerly awaited issue was the declaration of Azerbaijan's independence. When Mr. Özal left Moscow for Baku in March 1991, we opened our Consulate General in the sister capital. On October 18, we received news from both Baku and Moscow that Azerbaijan had re-declared its independence. We were concerned that the news did not come later and that Azerbaijan did not demand recognition from us. Both the government was slow to recognize Azerbaijan and there was no demand from Baku to recognize the independence of the brotherly country. I appealed to President Özal and Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz to send a diplomat to Baku to ask for Azerbaijan to demand recognition. At that time, the Christian countries quickly recognized the countries of the same religion that separated from the USSR; however, when it came to the recognition of Azerbaijan's independence, they even tried to prevent us to recognize Azerbaijan's independence. Both Özal and Yılmaz welcomed my proposal and immediately asked me to go to Baku. I went to Baku with Halil Akıncı, deputy head of our Embassy in Moscow, and Kurtuluş Taşkent, my deputy. We met with the President and Prime Minister there and asked them to demand recognition from Turkey. I will never forget my meeting with opposition leader Abulfaz Elchibey. He lived in a very simple house, the window was broken, they had not replaced it with new glass. We returned to Turkey, seeing that both the government and the opposition welcomed demanding recognition from Turkey. As soon as the demand came, we immediately wrote a declaration of recognition of Azerbaijan and submitted it to the government. I told President Özal and Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz that if we do not recognize Azerbaijan before Iran, history will not forgive us, and this will always be remembered as a great shortcoming in the future of our relations. On November 8, Mesut Yılmaz's government approved a declaration recognizing Azerbaijan. Then the government changed and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DYP-SHP coalition (True Path Party - Social Democratic and Populist Party), Hikmet Çetin, had the declaration approved in the parliament.

Turan: As soon as the Declaration of Independence was declared, it was decided to turn the Consulate General into an embassy, Altan Karamanoğlu became Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary…

Şimşir: Altan bey came to Ankara, his credentials were prepared, and after the agreement was reached from Baku, the ambassador would go there and present his letter of credence to the President, and he would officially start working. However, Altan bey's leg was broken, and he was hospitalized for a while. We tried to present the letter of credence to the President in Baku as soon as possible. It was decided that I take the letter to Baku. First, I met with the Prime Minister, he took the letter and put it aside and said, they had nothing to hurry. I said that Turkey was in a hurry and that Ambassador Karamanoğlu's letter of credence should be approved as soon as possible. The letter was presented to the president, I returned to Ankara, and after a while, Altan bey went to Baku. I was in Baku when Azerbaijan held a referendum of independence in late December. Azerbaijan was a very young country, and when I presented our ambassador's letter of credence to the president, I said that it was a unified form of a letter of credence, and they should prepare it in Azerbaijani Turkish. We were in constant contact with both the government and the opposition. In February 1992, the President Ayaz Mutalibov arrived in Ankara, and we decided to expand our support for brotherly Azerbaijan, which was at war.

Turan: I remember your previous visit to Azerbaijan very well. When I was in Baku with the Turkish Historical Society in June 1991, Professor Abdulhaluk Çay gave me your $ 20 and asked me to buy postage stamps. Did you have political and diplomatic consultations during your visit?

Şimşir: At that time, Azerbaijan had not declared independence. However, it was impossible not to see that the process led Azerbaijan to independence. We made more discussions about the common alphabet and history. I had copies of the Communist newspaper of 1922 in Latin letters. Abulfaz Elchibey said that they saw them for the first time. At that time, we used the Arabic alphabet. Azerbaijan was far ahead of us in that work; however, it was forced to adopt the Cyrillic alphabet in 1939. We wanted Azerbaijan to adopt the Latin alphabet. In our discussions in Baku, the disagreement was mostly over the letters "ə" and "x". Azerbaijani scholars insisted that these sounds were in the language, and therefore should be in the alphabet. I am a philatelist, so I was interested in the alphabet in which Azerbaijan will write its postage stamps. Our visits played a significant role both in gaining independence and in the development of relations between our countries.

Turan: As a researcher who has published the most books on the "Armenian issue" in Turkey, you also closely follow the world processes in that field. What about the French Senate's re-enactment of a law punishing those who say "there was no genocide"?

Şimşir: The ECtHR's decision in the Perinçek v. Switzerland stated that there must be a court ruling to characterize an incident as "genocide". Although there has been no court ruling on the events of 1915, there is no legal basis for the French Senate to re-enact the law. As the Swiss Parliament prepares to overturn its decision, the French Senate's decision to do the same again does not mean anything. The decision of the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR in the Perinçek v. Switzerland process is binding on all member states of the Council of Europe.