RUSSIA INTERESTED IN REOPENING OF TURKISH-ARMENIAN BORDER – PUNDIT

168 Zham
October 14, 2008 Tuesday
Armenia

A US-based Armenian political analyst, Richard Giragosian, believes
that Russia is more interested in the reopening of the Armenian-Turkish
border than the USA is. In an interview with the Armenian newspaper
168 Zham, Giragosian also said that Turkey has "reached a point
where it no longer wishes to link its relations with Armenia to the
Karabakh issue".

The analyst believes that Turkey wants to become a regional superpower,
which is why it seeks closer relations with Russia.

Russia is interested in the reopening of the Armenian-Turkish border
because it would benefit both economically and politically from this,
Giragosian said. The Turks now want to "decide their own policy
independently" and "any step that Turkey makes to establish normal
relations with Armenia moves it away from Azerbaijan", Giragosian said.

The change in the Turkish policy is connected with a "crisis"
in Turkish-US relations, the expert said. He believes that Turkey
wants to be the predominant power both in the South Caucasus and
Black Sea regions due to the issue of Iraq, the problems of Kurds
and the Turkish-US military problems. He says that Turkey views the
South Caucasus region as a platform for entering both Azerbaijan and
Central Asia, where it wants to be an equal player with Russia.

Giragosian believes that the Turkish influence on the settlement of the
Karabakh issue is weakening as the Turkish-Azerbaijani relations have
started to deteriorate. The analyst said that, since Russian President
Dmitriy Medvedev’s visit to Baku in July, Azerbaijan has been moving
closer to Russia and not to the USA or Turkey. Azerbaijan’s demand
for Russian military aid and its public statement that it does not
want to join NATO pose a threat to Armenia and Nagornyy Karabakh,
Giragosian said. According to the expert, Russia thinks that its
positions in Armenia are so strong that it can improve its relations
with Azerbaijan, and Armenia can do nothing as it has no "levers" to
do so. The expert believes that Russia is interested in preserving
the status quo in the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, as this allows
Moscow to maintain its influence in the region.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress