AZG Armenian Daily #202, 03/11/2007

Regional

ARMENIA IS IN THE FOCUS OF ATTENTION IN THE REGION

Turkologist, Director of NAA (National Academy of Armenia) Institute
of Oriental Studies Ruben Safrastian was the guest of "Hayatsk" club
on Wednesday. He touched upon the three factors in the region,
mentioning that the Armenian factor has gained a significant role in
the world and especially Turkish policy. "In this case, Armenia is in
the focus of attention in the region", he added.

The situation in Iraqi Kurdistan is full of serious consequences

Ruben Safrastian is sure that the latest developments around Iraqi
Kurdistan of the North Iraq are full of serious
consequences. According to him, if Turkey starts a war, it will raise
the Kurdish factor not only in the region, but also in Turkey. The
leading "Justice and development" party has many Kurd members, and in
case of military operations, Turkey will lose part of its support and
will weaken. Besides, the Kurdish "Democratic society" party,
registered in Turkey, appealed Turkey for adding a point about the
local autonomy of Kurdistan.

Consequently, according to Safrastian, Turkey feels the activization
of the Kurdish factor not only politically, but also economically, and
it will not perform wide military operations.

"Turkey uses the threats about wide military operations to strengthen
its position in the region and to show the regional countries that it
is a center of power", underlined Ruben Safrastian.

Turkey decreased its efforts to be integrated in EU

Turkey is not only involved in the Middle Eastern policy recently, but
also it finds there the bases for strengthening its position,
according to the Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies,

"Turkish European diplomacy has weakened recently, in this case EU
attitude is not important for Turkey", he said.

Adoption of Resolution 106 is the Armenians’ victory

Mr. Safrastian is sure that adoption of Resolution 106 by US House of
Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee is the victory of all
Armenians that showed the role of the Armenian factor in the world.
"Armenian factor has its place in the world, and Turkey could only
slow down that process with its menaces", mentioned the Turkologist.

Russia is still the leader in the region

"Russian diplomacy shows intentions in the recent period to recover
the spheres of influences of the former USSR in the Middle East. What
about the present crisis in North Iraq, Russia still shows a waiting
attitude to those incidents. But we should not forget that Russia has
close relations with Kurdish organizations and kept those
connections", announced Mr. Safrastian. According to him, Russia still
keeps the leader’s position in the region thanks to the Russian
military bases allocated in Armenia, its wide economic relations, the
gas factor in Armenia and the political connections.

The situation of Georgia will not change anything in the region

The regime of Sahakashvili is greatly supported by the United States,
and the Georgian opposition also doesn’t have a well-disposed attitude
towards Russia. In this case if the Georgian opposition can fall down
the regime of Sahakashvili, it will not change the whole geopolitical
situation in the region, according to Ruben Safrastian.

The Islamic factor will not change the regime in Azerbaijan

"Though Azerbaijani authorities and Americans do everything to weaken
the Islamic factor, it becomes stronger mainly thanks to Islamic
extremist representatives. It’s not an anti-Americanism, it’s Islamism
that, of course, has a strong anti-Americanism. I don’t think that
this Islamic factor will change the regime in Azerbaijan", mentioned
Ruben Safrastian.

By Gohar Gevorgian, translated by L.H.