Armenian expert: No full guarantee for ratification of Turkey-Armenia protocols

Day.Az: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated at a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama that Turkey-Armenia relations cannot be normalized without resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. What are your views on this statement?

Alexander Iskandaryan: Mr. Erdogan and other Turkish officials have made such statements on numerous occasions. The reasons for this kind of statement are evident – the ongoing Armenian-Turkish process. Turkish politicians have to work on different policy fields, from the U.S. to Azerbaijan and these fields require different types of rhetoric. Usually, after each event on one of the fields, the rhetoric is toughened on the other. This is natural.

Ankara constantly makes statements like "Turkey will not betray its Azerbaijani brothers", "Karabakh problem is our problem", "Turkey will not open its borders without settlement of the Karabakh problem". Though Armenia declines to make concessions in the Karabakh issue, it wants to normalize ties with Turkey. What will happen next under current alignment of forces?

This is not alignment of forces, but its indicators. The actual alignment is more complicated than the public statements. The events may develop in different ways both before and after ratification of the protocols. The very ratification is not guaranteed for hundred percent. Turkish authorities really face serious problems within society and elite.

The foreign ministers of the OSCE co-chairing countries adopted a joint statement after a meeting between President Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan noting dynamics in the negotiations and declaring that they have necessary will to complete work on the basic principles. What are your views on this statement? How do you assess work of the Minsk Group?

I appreciate the Minsk Group work as positive. The presence of a channel of communication between political elites of conflicting societies and involving international actors in such contacts are useful.

In recent years, Turkey has increasingly strengthened its position in the region. Is Turkey able to solve the Karabakh problem in this situation?

No, of course, Turkey is not able to solve the Karabakh problem on its own.

K. Mammadova