Ruben Safrastyan: Armenia has two categorical imperatives: restoring  the subjectivity of the state and deepening military-strategic  cooperation with Russia

ArmInfo.A very important milestone for Turkey's policy in the South Caucasus region will be 2023, when the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic will be  celebrated, and then Erdogan plans to announce the creation of a new  Turkey. This is the opinion of the director of the Institute of  Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia,  academician Ruben Safrastyan.

According to him, serious forces are working on this project today in  Turkey, including think tanks. In this regard, he expressed the  assumption that by this time, that is, within a year and a half,  Turkey will try to achieve new international victories in terms of  increasing its influence. After the second Karabakh war, the  academician believes, Turkey will undoubtedly continue its policy  towards the South Caucasus, the purpose of which is to strengthen the  small bridgehead that it managed to get as a result of this war  against Artsakh.

Safrastyan explained his opinion by the fact that Turkey had the  opportunity to create a joint monitoring center together with Russia.  And although Ankara had much broader appetites and sought the  presence of its military contingent in the peacekeeping forces,  having received an unequivocal refusal from Moscow, nevertheless, it  achieved the possible minimum.

Now, according to Safrastyan, Turkey, having received at least some,  but a foothold, will continue its aggressive policy, which at this  stage consists in further promoting its pan-Turkist plan related to  the Meghri corridor, and will do its utmost to ensure that the  Armenian Syunik partially passes under control of Azerbaijan.  Speaking about what Armenia can oppose to this, according to  Safrastyan, these are two categorical imperatives: the restoration of  the subjectivity and controllability of the Armenian state and the  restoration of the army, as well as the deepening of  military-strategic cooperation with Russia. "And I also think that we  need to create a model of the state in our country, which is commonly  called the model of a" smart state ". Only in this case Armenia will  be able to oppose Turkey's plan in the region in alliance with  Russia, "Safrastyan said.

It should be noted that the opinion of the Armenian expert is  confirmed by the numerous comments of the expert community of  Azerbaijan, which is considering the "Shusha Declaration" recently  signed in the captured in Artsakh city of Shushi as the first step  towards the creation of an Azerbaijani-Turkish confederation, to  which the opening of the so-called Zangezur corridor will also  contribute.