"IT IS NOT EXCLUDED THAT TURKEY RECONSIDERS ITS APPROACHES IN ESTABLISHING RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA," RUBEN SAFRASTIAN BELIEVES
Noyan Tapan
April 10, 2008
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, NOYAN TAPAN. The statements of Serge Sargsian
in the pre-election period about establishing Armenian-Turkish
relations without preconditions and holding open discussions, had
a positive response both in the west and in the very Turkey. This
was mentioned by Ruben Safrastian at the press conference, which was
held on April 10, who also added that the evidence of that response
is the congratulatory telegram sent by Abdullah Gul, the President
of Turkey, to Serge Sargsian on the occasion of being elected. In
addition to this, according to Ruben Safrastian, if the Justice
and Development party preserves its ruling positions, it is not
excluded that the official Ankara will reconsider its approaches in
establishing relations with Armenia. The Turkologist also reminded
the words of Ali Babajan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey,
according to which economic and not political interests should be
taken into consideration in Armenian-Turkish relations.
Touching upon the home political situation of Turkey, Ruben Safrastian
mentioned that the permanent struggle between Kemals and Islamists
has been moved to a legal sphere. The Kemals, according to him, have
been trying since March 14 to hit the Islamist Justice and Development
party, striving for reaching the stopping of the activities of that
political force for at least five years. The ruling party in its turn,
in the prevision of Ruben Safrastian, will try to avoid that danger
in a few ways. In particular, they will try to speed up the European
integration process, which in the past years was considerably slowed
down. In addition to this, the Justice and Development party will also
try to come to a certain compromise with Kemals, thus keeping away
from amending the Constitution, which was considered to be the main
objective of that party. And finally, according to Ruben Safrastian,
in case of stopping, the members of the Justice and Development will
penetrate into smaller parties and will again come to power through
making them bigger. Negotiations with the above-mentioned small
political forces on that very subject have already started.