Russian political analyst: Tension between Armenia and Turkey must not be resolved at any cost

NEWS.am
Armenia –

The tension should be resolved not at any cost, not by creating more tension, I fully trust the Russian Foreign Ministry to build this process in the interests of our ally, Russian political analyst Nikolay Silaev said in an interview with NEWS.am.

His remarks came while commenting on attempts to normalize relations between Armenia and Turkey.

In his opinion, the border will have to be opened sooner or later.

"It is important from the point of view of transport communications and ours too. It is clear that in Armenian society, the prospect of normalizing relations with Turkey is associated with very great emotions. It seems to me that this process now lacks publicity. There is an opportunity to speak more openly. Overall, the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations will not decrease the importance of Russian-Armenian relations, but will increase it," he said.

"Turkey is an important trading partner for the South Caucasus countries. But Russia is also a recipient of exports. The South Caucasus countries have a lot of production aimed at the Russian market.

The prospect of the revival of the Armenian industry is related to the Russian market, because there are still ties and a certain base. But Turkey is unlikely to be a market for industrial products from these countries, Turkey is unlikely to create such a volume of state orders, which creates and will create Russia, Turkey is unlikely to be so promising IT market. Russia was afraid of this kind of competition in the 1990s, but not now," Silaev noted.

"As for the competition on the part of Turkish goods in the Armenian market, it is a matter of customs regulations, not open borders," the expert added.