Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Turkey will establish the Turkish consulate general in Shushi, which is under Azerbaijani control. Aravot.am asked the Head of the Department of Iranian Studies at Yerevan State University, Vardan Voskanyan to comment on the statement.
“Obviously, the opening of a consulate in an occupied territory such as Shushi has no point other than an aggressive display of the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance. It is apparent that there is no population in the invaded Armenian town right now. Hence, the consulate is completely pointless, because it cannot serve the population,” Vardan Voskanyan said.
“It fits within the “logic” of the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance and the logic of the infamous declaration signed in Shushi. Clearly, the Turkish-Azerbaijani side is also trying to respond to Iran’s initiative to open a consulate in Kapan, which happened on the 21st of October by the Iranian Foreign Minister himself.
Read also
Furthermore, aside from being a display of aggressive behavior, it does not have any solely practical meaning. Understandably, there should be people voicing this issue both from the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh, because Shushi is a territory temporarily occupied from Artsakh, which the Azerbaijani occupiers, with the direct support of Turkish terrorists, were able to get during the 44-day war.”
Gohar HAKOBYAN
