ArmInfo.Turkey's presence in the South Caucasus is in itself a threat to regional security. This was stated by Ruben Melkonyan, Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of Yerevan State University, during the conference "Armenia and Turkey in the South Caucasus: Realities and Risks" on April 23.
The Dean stated that after the last Karabakh war, a new geopolitical and social reality was created in Armenia and the South Caucasus. According to him, this means that one of the security trenches has been ceded, and the enemy and the threats emanating from it have come even closer to the Armenian statehood and borders.
During his speech, he touched upon the issue of border demarcation, recalling that after the last war in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, this issue surfaced. He pointed to the strange delineation of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border through the GPS system and hidden threats, as a result of this method of demarcation.
To illustrate the threats, Melikyan cited the situation on the Armenian-Turkish border as an example. He recalled that the modern borders of Armenia and Turkey were defined by the Treaty of Kars, which is already 100 years old. The orientalist is convinced that the recognition of the Kara Treaty is extremely important for official Ankara, since it is one of the three main preconditions of Turkey in relation to Armenia and the Armenians.
"This is the suspension of the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the recognition of the Kara Treaty, and a solution to the Karabakh issue that is beneficial for Azerbaijan. One of these preconditions Turkey, through aggression, actually partially managed to solve. I'm sure it won't be long. Nevertheless, the remaining two preconditions remain on Turkey's agenda, " Melkonyan said, warning that in case of illiterate foreign policy and diplomacy, Armenia may be trapped in Turkey.
According to him, on the basis of the Kara Treaty, the first demarcation of the Armenian-Turkish border was carried out in 1924-26, and over time the issue of a new demarcation became relevant, the most global one was carried out in the 70s of the last century between the USSR and Turkey, in which there is no signature of the representative of the ASSR due to the presence of the Kara Treaty in the protocol. Speaking about today's realities, the orientalist stated that today, from a real political point of view, Armenia has no territorial claims against Turkey, but at the same time, Armenia has not declared that it recognizes the Kara Treaty. "This is due to the fact that this document was signed with a weak, losing Armenia, the people did not agree, did not accept this document. If we draw analogs, the situation today is similar. We cannot accept the loss of Shusha and Hadrut. And if, for example, we are now offered to sign a document where Shushi and Hadrut are part of Azerbaijan, I am sure that citizens, the scientific community, and probably government officials will oppose this, " the expert said, recalling that the Kara Treaty was mentioned in the statement to the Zurich Protocols, which the then Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian refused to sign. Speaking about the current realities of the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, Melkonyan expressed his conviction that Ankara will try to impose the recognition of the Kars Treaty on Yerevan in some hidden form as a precondition for the establishment of diplomatic relations. At the same time, he called on the Armenian authorities to be careful and not to fall into this hidden Turkish trap, because if this issue is not relevant in the political realities, then the situation may change.