By Trend

New realities and conditions have been created in the region for the long-awaited and sustainable peace after the liberation of the Azerbaijaniterritories from the Armenian occupation [in the 2020 second Karabakh war].

One of these realities has been the normalization of relations between Ankara and Yerevan, which is greatly needed by Armenia, whose policy has led to its isolation from regional projects.

A year later after the launch of the so-called "Football Diplomacy" towards Armenia by the former Turkish President Abdullah Gul in 2008, the first "step" was taken to normalize relations between Ankara and Yerevan.

The former Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who is presently head of one of the Turkish opposition parties, and his former Armenian counterpart Eduard Nalbandyan signed two protocols in Zurich [in 2009]. The signing ceremony was also attended by the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the former EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"This event is one of the most significant in the history of the new Turkey," some Turkish media not understanding and realizing the essence of what was happening said commenting on the signing of the protocols.

These media didn’t understand the meaninglessness of signing the protocols, since Armenia will never give up its basic principle regarding the events of 1915.

The former Armenian authorities believed that after the occupation of the Azerbaijani territories, Armenia became a real power in the region, and Turkey, entering into negotiations with Yerevan, would recognize it as such power, and they thought that despite the defeat in the football match [between Turkey and Armenia in 2008], victory at the negotiating table for Armenia was guaranteed.

Only the current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan officially opposed the signing of the protocols in Zurich, because he was well aware that without the liberation of the territories of Azerbaijan and without renouncement of the world Armenians' claims regarding the events of 1915, all attempts to normalize the relationships are doomed to failure, and he was absolutely right.

Presently, the events of 1915 unfoundedly called by Armenia "genocide" remain the main obstacle to the normalization of relations between Ankara and Yerevan. Turkey has repeatedly proposed the establishment of an independent commission to investigate these events, but the Armenian authorities, for "valid excuses", haven’t yet responded to this proposal from Turkey.

This "valid excuse" for the Armenian political elite is that in case of refusal from claims over the so-called "genocide", the Armenian lobby will no longer sponsor Armenia, which will lead to the final collapse of its economy.

The authorities in Yerevan are well aware of this, but they don’t realize that the development of Armenia depends on itself.

The political elite of Yerevan is still hiding from its people that without the normalization of relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey and without giving up claims over the events of 1915, instead of developing, Armenia will fall into greater poverty and hit new records in the export of labor migrants.

Rufiz Hafizoglu

Deputy Director General of Trend News Agency