Ankara to demand price for success in normalization process with Armenia – Ruben Safrastyan

ARMINFO
Armenia – Aug 24 2022
David Stepanyan

ArmInfo. The small steps forward following the fourth meeting between the Armenian and Turkish special envoys, Ruben Rubinyan and Serdar Kilic, in the Armenia- Turkey  normalization process were obviously Ankara's initiative, expert in  Turkic studies, Professor Ruben Safrastyan said in an interview with  ArmInfo.

"I think it is the result of Ankara's tactics in its negotiations  with Yerevan. Unwilling to open the border and establish diplomatic  relations with Armenia as soon as possible, Turkey is making small  steeps to produce an impression it is prepared for final  normalization," he said. 

In fact, however, at a certain stage, Ankara will demand that Yerevan  pay for its last step toward a successful completion of the process.  And the price is Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan and, of course, the  "Zangezur corridor". Evidence thereof is Recep Erdogan's repeated  attempts to link the Armenian-Turkish talks with Armenian-Azerbaijani  relations, particularly with the notorious "corridor problem."

Turkey in tandem with Azerbaijan is pushing ahead with the "corridor"  logic of unblocking transport links in the region, it being primarily  Ankara's strategic policy and far-reaching designs, with the aim to  rule out both Russia and Armenian control over the extraterritorial  corridor via Syunik, for unimpeded shipment of any cargoes via  Armenia and across the Caspian Sea to Central Asia. This proceeds  from Turkey's pan- Turkic policy. 

"Russia will not agree to an extraterritorial corridor, but it will  insist on unblocking the transport links under its border guards'  control, in line with the November 9 statement, which is in conflict  with Ankara and Baku's interests," Mr Safrastyan said. 

The conflicting desires of Moscow and Ankara are accompanied by  Armenia strongly rejecting the corridor logic. Another issue to be  specified is the safety of the transport links running to Russia via  Azerbaijan, th expert said.