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'Hard to wave goodbye to the homeland'
Friday, August 5, 2005
DIPLOMACY
ANAKARA - Turkish Daily News
Azerbaijan's only ambassador to Ankara since the country gained
independence in the early 1990s, Mehmet Aliyev Nevruzoglu will bid
goodbye to Turkey on Friday after serving almost 13 years in the
Turkish capital.
"Similar to a French saying, I say everybody has two homelands. For
me and the Turkic world, it is my own country and Turkey," Nevruzoglu
said in an expression of his feelings at a farewell visit to the
Turkish Daily News yesterday. "It's hard to say goodbye to a homeland."
Despite being fond of his career as a physics professor, Nevruzoglu
accepted the Ankara assignment in 1992 as he perceived his mission to
establish the Azerbaijani Embassy in Turkey, which he describes as
the center of the Turkic world, as very crucial. "I stopped working
as a scientist, although I loved it and had invested 50 years in it,
to come to Ankara for such an important mission," said the ambassador,
recalling his early days of service.
Ethnically and culturally bound neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan
enjoy close ties. For instance, Turkey insists on Armenian military
withdrawal from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, among other
conditions, before normalizing relations with Yerevan. Baku agreed
to help Turkey in efforts to ease the economic isolation of ethnic
kin in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC).
Privately owned Azerbaijani planes have recently landed at a KKTC
airport after visits to Nicosia by Azerbaijani parliamentarians.
Nevruzoglu said that after April 2004 referenda in which Turkish
Cypriots voted in favor of a U.N. peace plan while Greek Cypriots
voted against it, the international community realized the Turkish
Cypriot community was in support of a peaceful settlement to the
dispute. "Everybody realized our brothers in the KKTC were subjected
to injustice," he said.
The veteran ambassador recalled an Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit in Istanbul where the then
leaders of Turkey, the United States, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan
affixed final signatures for the start of the multi-billion-dollar
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline project as his happiest moment
during his term in Ankara, along with the birth of his two grandsons.
Nevruzoglu's career as a diplomat does not end with his departure
from Turkey. He has been taking Spanish language lessons for the past
two months because he will soon begin serving as Baku's ambassador
to Madrid.
Friday, August 5, 2005
DIPLOMACY
ANAKARA - Turkish Daily News
Azerbaijan's only ambassador to Ankara since the country gained
independence in the early 1990s, Mehmet Aliyev Nevruzoglu will bid
goodbye to Turkey on Friday after serving almost 13 years in the
Turkish capital.
"Similar to a French saying, I say everybody has two homelands. For
me and the Turkic world, it is my own country and Turkey," Nevruzoglu
said in an expression of his feelings at a farewell visit to the
Turkish Daily News yesterday. "It's hard to say goodbye to a homeland."
Despite being fond of his career as a physics professor, Nevruzoglu
accepted the Ankara assignment in 1992 as he perceived his mission to
establish the Azerbaijani Embassy in Turkey, which he describes as
the center of the Turkic world, as very crucial. "I stopped working
as a scientist, although I loved it and had invested 50 years in it,
to come to Ankara for such an important mission," said the ambassador,
recalling his early days of service.
Ethnically and culturally bound neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan
enjoy close ties. For instance, Turkey insists on Armenian military
withdrawal from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, among other
conditions, before normalizing relations with Yerevan. Baku agreed
to help Turkey in efforts to ease the economic isolation of ethnic
kin in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC).
Privately owned Azerbaijani planes have recently landed at a KKTC
airport after visits to Nicosia by Azerbaijani parliamentarians.
Nevruzoglu said that after April 2004 referenda in which Turkish
Cypriots voted in favor of a U.N. peace plan while Greek Cypriots
voted against it, the international community realized the Turkish
Cypriot community was in support of a peaceful settlement to the
dispute. "Everybody realized our brothers in the KKTC were subjected
to injustice," he said.
The veteran ambassador recalled an Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit in Istanbul where the then
leaders of Turkey, the United States, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan
affixed final signatures for the start of the multi-billion-dollar
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline project as his happiest moment
during his term in Ankara, along with the birth of his two grandsons.
Nevruzoglu's career as a diplomat does not end with his departure
from Turkey. He has been taking Spanish language lessons for the past
two months because he will soon begin serving as Baku's ambassador
to Madrid.