Mushegh Khudaverdyan made a comparison between Nazarbayev’s statement and the behavior by the leadership of Hungary two years ago, when Ramil Safarov was surrendered to Azerbaijan “Lately, the fight between superpowers, particularly Russia and the West, entered a new phase,” announced turkologist Mushegh Khudaverdyan, today, on June 6, at the meeting in “Noah’s Ark” media center.
To the question of Aravot.am of how he will assess Nazarbayev’s statement, the turkologist replied that the statement was a sign that despite Armenia is joining the Customs Union, nevertheless, Kazakhstan still specific interests with regard to Azerbaijan. “With his statement Nazarbayev wants to win the favor with Ilham Aliyev so that Kazakhstan would not have any problems with its relations with Azerbaijan during their further joint projects.” We also inquired whether this statement was not just winning the favor, or it had another context, Mushegh Khudaverdyan responded that it was definitely a statement supporting the view by Ilham Aliyev’s administration. “According to me, this incurred not so much from Nazarbayev’s anti-Armenian, but from the perspective of coincidence with interests of Azerbaijan at the moment. Nazarbayev’s this behavior can be compared with the behavior by leadership of Hungry two years ago when Ramil Safarov was surrendered to Azerbaijan as Hungary hoped to start a broad partnership with Azerbaijan on gas industry.”
To our question of who the relations between Syria and Turkey will proceed after Bashar al-Assad’s election as President of Syria, the turkologist responded that Syria and Turkey are not so much state controversies, as intergovernmental. Particularly, Erdoğan’s “Justice and Development” party is getting funds and assistance from the United States for years, therefore, Erdoğan has tried for years to protect the interests of the U.S. in the region, going against Bashar al-Assad. “However, now we see that the relations between Turkey and U.S. have become tense, and in this view, it is hard to make predictions of whether the Turkish-Syrian relations can be aggravated or will remain on the same level as today.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
