Russia-Turkey-Azerbaijan relations are becoming emphasized friendly and strategic
At the PACE autumn plenary session, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu addressed to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in his speech, noting that it is a complicated conflict, adding that normalization of relations between Turkey with Armenia is also complex, “We signed Armenian-Turkish protocols in Zurich, which, unfortunately, were a failure.” Afterward, Çavuşoğlu is making a remarkable transition to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, rather say, to the expectations of Ankara on this issue, “Russia makes very sensible proposals, which is the withdrawal of Armenians from 5 occupied regions of Azerbaijan. This option is now under consideration. In the case of initiating these steps, I hope the problem will be solved, Azerbaijan is also for the settlement. Turkey, in its turn, is willing to normalize relations with Armenia.”
A few hours later, official Yerevan reacted to this statement. RA Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan mentioned, “The settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, first of all, is aimed at the decision on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, in compliance with the people of Nagorno-Karabakh and expression of will that has legal mandatory power. Turkish Foreign Minister’s subsequent attempt to distort the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process once again proves what we have repeatedly voiced: Turkey should be kept away from the negotiating process as far as possible. As for the Turkish Foreign Minister’s statement on Armenian-Turkish relations, if Ankara really wants to normalize the relations with Armenia, it would have ratified it earlier and would fulfill the Armenian-Turkish protocols signed in Zurich in 2009.”
The expectations of Turkish and Azerbaijani authorities from Moscow in favor of pro-Azerbaijani solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not a novelty. No matter how logical is the reaction of official Yerevan in response to Çavuşoğlu’s statement, however, there is no Armenian official who can convince our society that Moscow does not have such plans from the four-day war in April. The question here is not the fact that official Yerevan is now demonstrating a tough position and is not going to make concessions but the fact that official Ankara’s and Baku’s hope is Moscow for exerting pressure on Armenia.
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In addition, official Moscow does not also deny similar statements periodically voice from Ankara and Baku about the Russian plan. Apparently, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu spoke thru the microphone of the PACE about “Lavrov’s plan”. Hence, the Turkish-Azerbaijani obstinacy about this plan is not surprising. Especially, in the last few days.
A few days ago, high-level Russian and Turkish talks kicked off in Istanbul, which resulted in the signing of a number of documents, namely, the intergovernmental treaty about building a “Turkish Stream” pipeline. Russian-Turkish economic relations are rapidly recovering, Moscow-Ankara cooperation obtains a military-political significance.
After the meeting of the presidents of Turkey and Russia in Istanbul that lasted about 1 hour and 40 minutes, the energy ministers of both countries, Alexander Novak and Berat Albayrak, respectively, signed an agreement, which envisages to build a gas pipeline consisting of two land and sea pipelines until 2020 with the budget of about 12.5 billion dollars. The “Turkish Stream” will start from the coast of the city of Anapa, Krasnodar Krai, and then passing through the bottom of the Black Sea, it will come out to the coast of Turkey, near the Kayaköy settlement. Crossing the entire European part of Turkey, it will come out near the city of İpsala bordering with Greece, by taking the Russian gas to the Southwest of Europe.
Summing up the results of the meeting, Turkish President Erdoğan noted that he intends to expand the cooperation with Russia in the spheres of commerce, defense, economic, energy, tourism and culture. He informed that they have achieved an agreement with the Russian side on one more agenda item: to speed up the construction works of the “Akkuyu” NPP, “I am confident that the normalization process of the relations between Turkey and Russia will continue in a new big way. I believe that we will bring the lost time back in the near future.”
Putin-Erdoğan meeting produced an agreement on the discount on the price of gas supplied to Turkey, as well as the restrictions on the import of agricultural products from Turkey to Russia was lifted. The Russian President has congratulated Erdoğan and the Turkish people with success in bringing the situation under control. He has mentioned that he is happy that they have managed to keep the situation under control, ” We understand that, these are, probably, not the best days for Turkey to hold such a major event since, as we all know, quite recently the country lived through a military coup attempt. We carefully and anxiously observed everything that happened in Turkey.”
In the talks held in Istanbul, Putin and Erdoğan also discussed the issue of cooperation in the defense industry. Turkish Minister of Economy, Nihat Zeybekci, has not ruled out the fact that the agreement on free trade with Russia may be finalized until mid of 2017. “Turkey and Russia are working rapidly to finalize the free trade agreement … and will later discuss other issues such as fields it will develop. Our aim is to create a reality where there will be no obstacles between Turkey and Russia in bilateral trade, and the expansion of our relations,” – said Zeybekci.
Having quite deep contradictions in Syria, however, Russia and Turkey are steadily going to warming of the relations. Having serious problems with the West, both Ankara and Moscow show how much they appreciate each other.
Russia-Turkey-Azerbaijan relations are becoming emphasized friendly and strategic with ambitious joint projects. In this context, the statement by the Turkish Foreign Minister in the PACE on Nagorno-Karabakh is no surprise, it was even highly expected.
EMMA GABRIELYAN
