Armenian scientist on Turkic studies: "Positive changes in the Russian-Turkish relations will not have any impact on the Karabakh conflict resolution"

"Russia and Turkey try to systematize their policy in the South Caucasus in order not to allow interference of other states into the processes, ongoing in the region", said scientist on Turkic studies, director of the Oriental studies Institute under the Armenian National Academy of Science Ruben Safratyan.

He said, documents, signed during the visit of Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Moscow, demonstrate this tendency. Commenting on the decision of Moscow and Ankara to reject dollar and EUR in mutual calculations, expert noted that this is an important symbolic jesture, proving strengthening of trade and political relations.

Safratyan noted at the same time that the trade turnover between the two countries reached $32 bln per year. Yet, according to the exper, the two countries will hardly establish a high level of military and political and strategic relations, except for trade of military technique.

"I do not see reasons for which we can review our approaches to the relations of Turkey with Russia. Historically, Russia and Turkey were rivals in the region and the South Caucasus or the Caucasus in a wider sense was a region that each of them tried either to bind to itself, or take under its control. There are no signs of changes in the situation: we see some political coordination of actions, the developed economic cooperation, but the countries have different vectors in the military and political regions and there are still no changes in the policy of Russia and Turkey in the sense of strategy", noted he.

"As for the resolution of the Karabakh conflict, I do not think that positive changes in the Russian-Turkish relations will influence the resolution of this conflict. I think the Karabakh conflict is a sphere in which the interests of the two states collide", noted the expert.

He said the fact that Ankara displays attempts to improve relations with Armenia is mostly connected with the preparation of a new resolution on "Armenian genocide" in the US congress.

At the same time Safratyan noted that efforts of the Turkish diplomacy will likely give a positive result and Obama will abstain from recalling the term "genocide" in his speech on April 24.

"In the telephone talk with Turkish leaders Obama raised issue of normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations and I am sure that he was told about talks with Armenians and that the US interference and the topic of genocide will have a negative influence on this process", noted he.

But on the other hand, Safratyan noted that the Jewish lobby does not support Turkey as it did earlier, therefore, the possibility of adoption of the "genocide" in the Congress is still high.

/Regnum/