“There is a certain process that is not public. We can rule out the coincidence of the RA leader making a statement like that and the Turkish president responding. It is clear that there is a private process. It is unequivocal,” said political scientist Beniamin Poghosyan during the Media Center’s online discussion, referring to RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statement that there are positive signals from Turkey.
He reminded that the “football diplomacy” of 2008-2009 had processes preceding it. “Now we are in the same preliminary stage, and there are non-public discussions. The parties consider that it is time to make the discussions public. Why does Turkey want to start the process of normalizing relations now? There are two reasons.”
According to Poghosyan, “First of all, Turkey has always wanted to have more influence in the South Caucasus. It understands that the lack of relations with Armenia is an obstacle. The improvement of relations with Armenia will contribute to the increase of Turkey’s influence in the South Caucasus. Secondly, I think Turkey hopes that normalizing relations will also lead to the establishment of economic relations, which will lead to the involvement of the Turkish economy in Armenia.
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This will create economic levers for Turkey, which, if necessary, can be used to exert some pressure on Armenia. The question will be why Turkey wants to normalize relations with us now. Before the war, there was another “status quo” in the Artsakh issue. Without changing the “status quo” in favor of Azerbaijan, the process of Armenia-Turkey relations would lead to problems in Turkey-Azerbaijan relations. For this reason, the process in 2008-2009 did not take us anywhere seriously, and now, according to Turkey, the Artsakh issue no longer exists for Armenia and Azerbaijan.”
Luiza Sukiasyan
