YEREVAN. – There are several reasons that prevent the establishment of official relations between Turkey and Armenia, secretary of the Tsarukyan bloc NEWS.am заявил секретарь парламентской фракции блока «Царукян» Ваге Энфиаджян, отвечая на вопрос, могут ли возникнуть какие-либо предпосылки для сдвига в направлении налаживания армяно-турецких отношений. ">Vahe Enfiadjyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am asked whether there could be any preconditions for a shift towards the establishment of the Armenian-Turkish relations.
According to him, the main obstacle is a negative reaction to this process of the Azerbaijani side.
“The precedent, as you remember, was the reaction of the Azerbaijani side to the Armenian-Turkish protocols, signed in Zurich. We should not forget about Baku's reaction to the plans to open the Yerevan-Van flight, which, however, was not realized,” he explained.
As the secretary of the faction noted, it is quite obvious that Turkey is fully aware of the fact that the hard and unpleasant reaction of Baku can be caused by the de-blocking of the Armenian-Turkish border.
At the same time, he added that the Turkish side understands that the opening of the border will lead to the economic development of other border regions, raising living standards in some provinces of the country, which are currently underdeveloped. However, as Enfiadjyan noted, Turkey is also aware of its benefits that it can get from the supply of Azerbaijani gas, since Azerbaijan and Iran are its main and cheapest gas supplier after Russia and Iran.
“Taking into the account the above and the Armenian-Turkish issue as a general, I do not see any real prospects for establishing relations in the near future," the secretary of the parliamentary faction of the Tsarukyan bloc concluded.
The Armenian-Turkish border has been closed since 1993 on the initiative of the Turkish side. Some reconciliation in the relations started in autumn 2008 initiated by Armenia's president Serzh Sargsyan
Armenian and Turkish Foreign Ministers signed “The Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Armenia and Turkey” and “The Protocol on Development of Relations between Armenia and Turkey” in Zurich on 10 October 2009. Later, Ankara put forward preconditions for the Karabakh conflict that disrupted the Armenian-Turkish reconciliation