Ruben Safrastyan comments on the significance of military alliance between Turkey, Azerbaijani and Georgia
Defense ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia met Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, to discuss the military agreement to be signed between the three countries. “Aravot” talked about this Agreement and its caused possible isolation of Armenia with turkologist Ruben Safrastyan. He reminded us that the allied relations between our three neighboring countries began in 2006, which was initiated by Turkey, and prior to that, in 1999, there was a proposal to establish joint detachments along the entire “Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan” oil pipeline, who would oversee the pipeline and defend it.
“But the US and NATO acted against this idea. Even the NATO representative announced that there is no need for it, and if need, NATO will defend. But this process, which was following the goal basically to isolate Armenia by engaging Georgia in this alliance and enhance Turkey’s position in the region remained incomplete, as the Russo-Georgian war of 2008 ceased it. In the last one or two years, it became active again,” says Mr. Safrastyan. In his words, the process has entered a new phase now: the agreement has turned into a military one. “I think this became possible as the conflict between America and Russia has been intensified, Turkey succeeded to get the Americans ‘consent, the positive approach, because Americans perceive Turkey as an anti-Russian tool,” says Mr. Safrastyan.
To our observation of whether this time again, the small country Armenian suffers from the aspirations of great states, the turkologist replied, “I would not say that Armenia suffers from this because the fact that the Russian military is deployed in Armenia, it already means that Armenia becomes a target for this plan. This is evident. There is no matter of losing or gaining here because initially, the goal was to isolate Armenia. This should be perceived as a continuation of the split policy in the region. In other words, the region is divided into two poles, which can be either to the US or Russia’s side. In other words, the conflict that grows all over the world is transiting to our region too, which I think it is dangerous.”
Read also
Mr. Safrastyan believes that a wedge is stuck in the region because of the military agreement of our neighboring states, which will also make everyone face the economic problems. Ruben Safrastyan, comparing the strengths of the parties in our region that henceforth have become bipolar, does not think that Armenia is in a weaker position, regardless of the three states on the opposite side that are under the US patronage. “There is a Russian military base deployed in Armenia, and we are a part of the CSTO, unlike Georgia and Azerbaijan that are not a member of any military-political alliance, it means that our position in military terms is quite strong.”
HRIPSIME HOVHANNISYAN
