WPS Agency, Russia
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 4, 2009 Friday

ARMENIA AND TURKEY: RECONCILIATION
Russia does not object

by Kirill Zubkov

ARMENIA AND TURKEY ARE A STEP CLOSER TO NORMALIZATION AND
ESTABLISHMENT OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS; An update on the
Armenian-Turkish rapprochement.

Closed since 1993, the state border between Armenia and Turkey might
be finally deblocked come winter. Yerevan and Ankara are even prepared
to establish diplomatic relations. Fortunately, the Armenian-Turkish
rapprochement does not encroach on the interests of Russia in Armenia
or, broader, in the South Caucasus. Moscow, Yerevan, and Ankara want
peace and stability for the region.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry reported yesterday that Ankara and
Yerevan with Switzerland as the broker were working on the protocols
"On establishment of diplomatic relations" and "On development of
bilateral relations". "The consultation will take six weeks, so that
the Turkish-Armenian will hopefully be opened by 2010," Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

The state border was closed in 1993 in a show of Turkish solidarity
with Azerbaijan that lost Nagorno-Karabakh to the Armenians this
year. As for diplomatic relations, Turkey never even established them
with Armenia when the latter became a sovereign state in 1991. Yerevan
demanded from Turkey to recognize the genocide in the Ottoman Empire
in 1915-1917, something Ankara could not do, of course.

Mikhail Alexandrov, Chief of the Department of the Caucasus of the
Institute of CIS Countries, plainly told RBC Daily that "the
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation does not mean dismantlement of the
special relationship between Yerevan and Moscow." Sandwiched between
Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia, Armenia found itself isolated on all
sides after the last year war in South Ossetia. The opening of the
border with Turkey will make life considerably easier for Armenia.

In the meantime, the reconciliation will also benefit Turkey which
aspires to the status of the regional leader. "Ankara is through both
with being exceptionally pro-Western and with its pan-Turkic
illusions," Alexandrov said. "The period when Ankara participated in
the blockade of Armenia in the name of solidarity with Azerbaijan is
finally over."

Maintenance of regional stability in accordance with the Security and
Development Platform plan is Ankara’s number one priority. Bracing for
the forthcoming withdrawal of the US Army from Iraq, Turkey prepares
itself for the nearly inevitable deterioration of the Kurd
problem. Neither do Armenia and Russia want anything but stability in
the region.

Source: RBC Daily, September 2, 2009, p. 2