Karen Ghazaryan
Public Radio of Armenia
Turkey formed the 62nd government ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. What can be expected from the Erdogan-Davutoglu couple? “Nothing good,” expert of Turkish studies Artak Shakaryan told reporters today.
Hakob Chakryan also considers no changes should be expected in Turkey’s policy.
“As Turkey has no intention to refuse from its policy of denial, Turkey’s Presidents won’t visit Armenia on April 24,” Chakryan said.
According to Shakaryan’s assessment, in reality nothing has changed in Turkey, it simply needs a proper occasion to start harassment against non-Muslim population. “This means the previous policy line will be maintained, if the outer forces fail to exert influence, i.e. if no essential changes take place in Syria, Iraq and Russia,” he said.
Ruben Melkonyan considers we should be ready for a harsher, more aggressive and intolerant policy under Erdogan’s presidency.
According to Artak Shakaryan, the three preconditions invented even before Erdogan will be maintained. “These include refusal from demands of Armenian Genocide recognition, official recognition of Turkey’s borders, i.e. refusal from Western Armenia and unilateral concessions in Karabakh issue,” the expert said
He reminded that in 1990s, when Ahmet Davutoglu was a regular lecturer and had no hopes of becoming Foreign Minister or Prime Minister, he wrote a book about Turkey’s strategic development, in which he mentioned: “The occupation of Kelbajar by Armenian forces was the greatest loss of Turkey in the post-Cold War era.”
“That means he sees the victory of the Armenian forces in the struggle against Azerbaijan as Turkey’s defeat. Following the same logic, he says that as long as Azerbaijan is powerful, Turkey will have influence in the South Caucasus. Therefore, it’s clear that the Turkish-Azerbaijani partnership, friendship and strategic alliance has long-term plans and does not depend on political changes,” Shakaryan said.
According to him, the latest statements within the framework of Erdogan’s visit to Azerbaijan come to prove this.
