“The mafia is connected with the highest state bodies of Turkey. It is part of both illegal state activities and business,” Ruben Safrastyan, full member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, said in response to Aravot’s comment about how the international press also writes that the mafia in Turkey is connected with the ruling forces and and its question about whether it contains dangers in terms of relations with Turkey.
A few days ago, the German Deutsche Welle published an article titled, “Turkey: Politicians and the Mafia Create a State within a State” in which it is stated that the idea that the mafia is helping the government to consolidate its power by “paramilitary means” has become more frequent in Turkey.
Proof of this is the fact that at the end of October, another leader of the Turkish mafia, Kürşat Yılmaz, was released early. According to Safrastyan, the mafia began to appear in Turkey during the Cold War, when it became clear that the Turkish special services had ties to the mafia. A folder was found near one of the mafia leaders who was killed in a car accident, which shows that he had connections with the top leadership of Turkey at that time.
Ruben Safrastyan, full member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences
Safrastyan explained, “The mafia is an important phenomenon in the domestic political life of Turkey. In particular, three or four months ago, one of the leaders of the Turkish mafia was released and started a series of programs and revelations on YouTube where he published the names of politicians who work with them. They say he should reach out to Erdogan, but his voice has not been heard in recent weeks.” Although the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has started talking about the positive signals from Turkey about the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, Ruben Safrastyan does not notice such tendencies.
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According to him, Turkey’s considerations with Armenia do not include the normalization of relations with Armenia. He said that this is the reason why all three attempts to normalize relations with Turkey have failed. “Turkey is not interested in normalizing relations with Armenia. Armenia does not matter to it economically, and politically as well. At that time, they thought that Russian dependence was less, so they took that step. American dependence was great. And now Turkey has no such motives. Dependence on America has become much weaker on these issues, as well as militarily. There is no pressure on Turkey from the United States. They solve their problems directly with Russia. That is why Armenia is not important to them.”
Ruben Safrastyan is convinced that the statements made by Turkey are just nice words and do not really express Turkey’s views on Armenia. He clarified, “Their considerations do not include normalizing relations with Armenia and seeing a state, Armenia, as their neighbor, which has normal relations with them, a normally operating border, and is their equal. If Armenia gets out of Russian influence and accepts Turkish sponsorship, then Turkey will normalize its relations with Armenia. This is their thinking. So now Turkey has absolutely no desire to normalize relations with Armenia.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
