No breakthrough should be expected in Turkey regarding the Armenian-Turkish relations before 2019 – expert
Amid a number of domestic and foreign political challenges faced by Turkey, it will be naive to think that Turkey will begin dealing with the Armenian-Turkish relations, according to Stepan Grigoryan, Director of the Yerevan-Based Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation.
“It is pointless to expect certain steps from Turkey. This is the exact time for Armenia and Diaspora to take one-sided steps, for example regarding the issue of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the U.S. The relations between Turkey and U.S take another turn for worse amid mutual visa suspension, arrest and summoning of diplomats. We can use all this,” the analyst said at a discussion titled “Armenia-Turkey relations before and after the signing of Protocols” held in Yerevan on Tuesday.
According to founder and head of the Modus Vivendi Center Ara Papian, in attendance of the discussion, normalisation in Armenian-Turkish relations is evidently impossible until the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Mr. Papian stated the Protocols have already left a negative impact, namely regarding the scale of the Armenian Genocide recognition ahead of its centennial in 2015. “I myself have engaged in different conversations claiming a positive dynamics is observed in the Armenian-Turkish relations. Do not try to take such steps since the [normalization] process will end up in a deadlock. The Turks got utmost of that document,” he said.
Gevorg Melikyan, an associate fellow at the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA), said that not everyone in Turkey links the Armenian-Turkish issue with the Karabakh conflict. Some Turks connect it with the Russian influence, others – with the relations between Gul and Erdogan at personal level.
“Currently Ankara is dealing with its domestic political issues. The country is preparing for the 2019 elections: local, parliamentary and presidential. Before that time, no breakthrough should be expected in Turkey regarding the Armenian-Turkish relations," the expert said, stressing the link between the Armenian-Turkish relatiosn and the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process.
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