ArmInfo. On the issue of opening the border, Armenia should not act as a supplicant. Second President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan stated on February 17 at a press conference in Yerevan, speaking about the risks of normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations,.
Recalling that he had never opposed the establishment of relations with Turkey, Kocharyan recalled that this process should take place naturally, through the exchange of notes, the establishment of diplomatic relations, the opening of embassies. Discussions then begin on how to overcome the existing problems between the two countries. "What is happening now is incomprehensible to me. In fact, the format that I see today is that we are negotiating not with Turkey, but with the Turkey-Azerbaijan tandem, where the agenda is formed by Baku, and it is voiced by Ankara. This is will not lead us to anything good. This is not a good way to normalize relations," Kocharyan is convinced.
According to the second president, one needs to understand what Armenia will get after the opening of the border, and the threats are great. He stated that a number of industries and areas will suffer, the Armenian market expects a certain shock for the next 3-5 years. "Bulgaria has this experience. Serious problems are expected. But, I have not heard a single assessment and calculation about the consequences of opening the border, and how we will protect our market. The ministry that should do it is not taken seriously, which is jokingly called "Ministry of Hope". We are facing a serious threat, but there is no assessment. It seems that these people hate professionals. I thought about it, and my conclusion is that a good specialist in Armenia today knows hisher own worth and values hisher own dignity. Therefore, they gather people who do not have their own opinion. And the problem lies in this," the politician believes.
He recalled that during the last meeting there were talks about the benefits of rail transport, but nothing was said about road transport, while after that a "great idea" was voiced about the transit potential of the Republic of Armenia. According to Kocharyan, talk about the benefits that the opening of communications promises us is absurd. In this vein, he recalled that there are 400 km from Yerevan to the border of the Russian Federation.
"The structure of the Armenian economy and the economy in general in the world is such that a significant part of the transportation is carried out by trucks, but for Armenia the situation will not change, since our main partner is the Russian Federation. Nothing will change. It's going to get a lot worse if Iranian cargo transportation will pass through Nakhichevan, then no one will send cargo through Syunik. And the Syunik region will be in a bad situation. If we carry out cargo transportation by the railway of Azerbaijan, the way will double. This will further remove us from our sales markets in the East - the Krasnodar Territory and Moscow. The path will be at least 800 km longer. These people don't look at maps? Or they also hate maps as a professional tool," Kocharyan asked, adding that the use of the railway requires additional efforts.
According to him, by opening the borders for Turkish goods, Armenia will again be the losing side. "I am not saying that we should not leave the borders closed, but we need a comprehensive program for the next 3-5 years to protect our own market. There are such protection tools as subsidies to our producers or customs barriers, there are other ways of protection. But about this no one speaks and this is not discussed," the second president of the Republic of Armenia believes. According to him, everything needs to be considered as a whole, and it is possible to involve good specialists who are in Armenia and make appropriate calculations. "My request is not to consider the country's intellectual abilities in the context of the ruling force," Kocharyan noted.
Emphasizing once again that he had never opposed the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, Kocharyan noted that during his tenure in power it was easier for him to talk about opening the border with Turkey, since then Armenia was the winning side in the war, the security of Nagorno-Karabakh was ensured, and the initiator of the closure of the border was Turkey, not Armenia.
At the same time, Kocharyan noted that he never talked about it, but always took note that this closed border to some extent protected the emerging Armenian market and even helped to achieve success in a number of areas of production. "If they then announced that they were opening the borders, we would have used certain tools to protect the market. Then we dictated the agenda, and the leaders of Turkey or Azerbaijan could not make claims against us and, unlike today, we would not have to keep quiet for fear of losing a couple more military posts," Kocharyan said. "Roughly speaking, they grabbed Armenia by something, and they can tear it off. Roughly, but honestly. This is the situation," he said.
On the issue of opening the border, as the second president noted, Armenia should not act as a supplicant. " The opening of the borders is natural , it is unnatural that Bayraktars attacked us a year ago, that's, in fact, what is unnatural and I am sure that the drone operators were Turks. We must remember this. And this factor needs to be emphasized," Kocharyan said.
To clarify, if Russia is interested in a strong ally, then why today it contributes to the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations and the unblocking of communications, Kocharyan noted that he does not believe that the deblockade will lead weakening of the Republic of Armenia. "There are two tools in foreign policy: if you can't interfere, then become a participant in the process, and this is exactly the case. Russia soberly assesses its limits, which were revealed during the war. Russia has not yet made a final correction of its position in the region," he said.
At the same time, Kocharyan believes that Turkey has been acting quite independently in relations with the West in recent years. According to him, from the moment when the Turks realized that they would not become EU members, they abruptly changed their policy and focused on strengthening the influence around them.
"Turkey and Russia have common interests in this issue. But, , Russia and Turkey have been present for more than one century in the South Caucasus region and remain rivals, but time will tell what manifestation this rivalry will have in the future. But today they manage to smooth out contradictions and form a certain model of relations, even being rivals," Kocharyan summed up.