"TURKEY IS TRYING TO CREATE NEW MILITARY-POLITICAL UNION IN REGION," RUBEN SAFRASTIAN ASSERTS

Noyan Tapan
Jul 27, 2007

YEREVAN, JULY 27, NOYAN TAPAN. The current government of Turkey will
take the same course in foreign policy as the previous one. This
statement was made by Ruben Safrastian, the Director of the Institute
of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences, at the
July 27 press conference dedicated to the results of the recent
parliamentarian elections held in Turkey and their possible influence
on Armenian-Turkish relations.

According to him, during the past few months Turkey has been conducting
a policy directed at splitting the the South Caucasus and creating a
new axis in the region: Turkey – Azerbaijan – Georgia. The preliminary
goal of the politics of Turkey is the creation of an economic bloc
of three states, and afterwards the transformation of the economic
bloc into a military-political union.

By the way, according to Ruben Safrastian, neither Russia, which
traditionally enjoys a great influence in that region, nor the United
States of America and the European Union, which consider the South
Causcasus as a united region, support the policy of Turkey. "In my
opinion, there are a lot of obstacles in the path of the realization
of the above-mentioned policy of Turkey," Ruben Safrastian declared.

As for the question of whether the "Justice and Development" ruling
party of Turkey will take steps directed at the normalization of the
relations with the Republic of Armenia, Ruben Safrastian stated that
only very small steps can be expected.