Armenian turcologist: The Caucasus Platform has no future
2009-02-21 19:28:00
ArmInfo. Turkey’s initiative on creating the Caucasus Stability and
Security Platform has no future and can’t be implemented, Director of
the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Armenian National Academy of
Sciences, turcologist Rouben Safrastyan told journalists, Saturday.
"The matter is that three countries of the South Caucasus will have to
sign a common document and carry out joint actions aimed at maintaining
security in the South Caucasus with two countries which are no part of
this region. But how can, for instance, Georgia having problems with
Russia, or Azerbaijan having problems with Armenia sign such a
document?" – Safrastyan said. According to him, this initiative is a
diplomatic phenomenon often applied when a proposal, in which not the
goal but the process itself is important, is put to discussion. "The
process is profitable for Russia and Turkey", he said. The process will
give Russia to demonstrate to the USA that the latter has nothing to do
in the Caucasus, and as regards Turkey, the process will give it an
opportunity to create a kind of counterweight to the military-political
domination of Russia in the Caucasus which was fixed after the
South-Ossetian conflict, and to show that it is also an important
regional player",- Safrastyan concluded.