ArmInfo. Accompanied by the strengthening of the Turkish- Azerbaijani tandem, the weakening of Artsakh and Armenia of Russia is unprofitable. The director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, professor Ruben Safrastyan expressed this opinion to ArmInfo.
"After all, no one has yet canceled the struggle for influence in the South Caucasus between Russia and Turkey, and therefore, Moscow will not allow any decisions on Artsakh without taking into account the opinion and, accordingly, the interests of Armenia - it simply does not proceed from its interests In turn, Ankara will always raise the Karabakh problem before Moscow, but I do not see the desire to go to meet the Turks in this issue, "the Turkologist said.
On the eve of the meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced discussion of other issues and the Karabakh problem at the meeting. Erdogan expressed the supposition that if the Russian colleague is concentrated on this issue, it "will be easily solved".
The turkologist reminded that a certain Russian-Turkish rapprochement takes place against the backdrop of total contradictions in the regional interests of Russia and NATO Turkey. Meanwhile, as the only ally of Russia in the Caucasus, Armenia, according to his estimates, is of significant geopolitical interest for Moscow, especially considering the location of the 102nd RVB in Gyumri.
"In this light, it seems that there is no prospect of greater rapprochement between Russia and Turkey, and the achievement of a consensus between Moscow and Ankara on the issue of Artsakh is even more unlikely," Safrastyan summed up. The OSCE Minsk Group has been dealing with the settlement of the Karabakh conflict since 1992, represented by the co-chairs from Russia, the United States and France. Currently, the settlement process is based on the Madrid Principles put forward by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs in 2007 and updated in 2009, among other things, providing for the deployment of a peacekeeping contingent in the conflict zone.