BEGINNING OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH NEGOTIATIONS IS ONE OF ANKARA’S STEPS TOWARDS EUROPE, RUSSIAN EXPERT THINKS

ArmInfo
2008-09-11 15:01:00

ArmInfo. The beginning of Armenian-Turkish negotiations is one of
Ankara’s steps towards Europe, Sergey Markedonov, the head of the
department of international relations at the Institute of Political
and Military Analysis, told ArmInfo correspondent.

"Turkey is striving to establish relations with EU at any
expense. Therefore I think that the beginning of the Armenian-Turkish
negotiations is one of the steps made by Ankara towards Europe. It’s
no secret that Europe connects the issue of Turkey’s admission to
EU with issues of Turkey’s settlement of its problems with Cyprian
Greeks, Armenia and Kurds living in Turkey, and these are only some
of Europe’s requirements", he noted.

According to the expert, along with activation of the talks between
Armenia and Turkey, the Cyprian issue on which Turkey started talks
with Greeks has also recently been activated. Markedonov doesn’t
consider this parallel accidental in the context of the latest events
in the region.

"Moreover, one shouldn’t forget the factor of Armenian lobby in
the USA. It is known that the USA have been striving to unblock the
Armenian-Turkish border under the pressure of Armenians living in
the USA", he said. Turkey can’t help taking into account Washington’s
opinion, he said.

To recall, Turkey and Armenia lack diplomatic relations, and the
border has been blocked since 1993. Local and foreign analysts
qualify Abdullah Gul’s visit to Yerevan as extremely important for
normalization of the two countries’ relations.