Thursday, April 14 2022 17:08

ArmInfo. Turkish ambitions are the ambitions of NATO.  Everything that Turkey receives in the South Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, and Central Asia now will become NATO's zone of influence in the future. On April 14, during the  Yerevan-Moscow video bridge, a Russian political scientist, radio and  TV presenter Sergey Mikheev expressed a similar opinion.

He agreed that with Nikol Pashiyan coming to power in Armenia, the  Russian side has a lot of questions about the positioning of Yerevan.

"From time to time, there is some confusion about the actions that  official Yerevan is taking. There are serious suspicions that the  same States, to a lesser extent, Europeans, have a serious influence  on the situation.  But their goal is simple to tear Armenia away from  Russia. If they succeed, Armenia will become, so to speak, a toy in  the hands of the West. It must be understood that Turkey, with any  softness of its position, is the closest ally of the United States in  this region and a NATO member country. And when the question of  Turkish ambitions comes up, I think that Turkish ambitions are the  ambitions of NATO.  Erdogan will leave sooner or later, but  everything that Turkey will receive in the South Caucasus, the  Caspian Sea, Central Asia now - in the future it will all become  NATO's zone of influence," Mikheev emphasized, adding that that is  why he is behind all this sees the same Americans.

In his opinion, the western elite, including the American one, hopes  to turn the conditionally Turkish zone into a NATO zone of influence  through the hands of Erdogan and Turkey.   "Armenia will be completely lost in this scheme. It will be given,  assigned a very unenviable role. But that's not even the point. And  by and large, these some hesitation of Yerevan, as well as the  presence of a serious pro-Western, European group, cause us certain  doubts, fears, and so on and so forth," Mikheev said.

At the same time, according to the political scientist, the Kremlin,  represented by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is in contact with  RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. In this vein, he reminded that in  the coming days the Armenian prime minister will visit Moscow and the  leaders of the two countries consider these relations constructive.  He also added that this, in turn, means that with all these costs,  Russia strategically believes that the development of integration  between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia is right  and necessary.

At the same time, the expert pointed out the importance of what the  parties are referring to here - momentary, or important, aimed at the  future. "Looking to the future, mutual integration is useful for both  Russia and Armenia. At least for Armenia in terms of having a balance  and a counterbalance," he said, and as a positive integration  development he cited the example of cooperation between Russia and  Belarus within the framework of the Union State.

At the same time, Mikheev pointed out the importance of the  Armenian-Russian relations, formalized in Eurasian integration.  According to the political scientist, it is pointless to question  them just because someone just looked askance at someone.  As for the  question of whether Russia is worried about the growing influence of  Turkey in the South Caucasus, Mikheev said in the affirmative.

"Of course it does. We have no illusions about Turkey, our relations  with Turkey have always been very difficult. Another question is that  now there is a certain format that we cannot just take and throw  away.  The Turks did not fully join the US and European sanctions.  Also, our gas pipeline passes through Turkey, which is now of  particular importance for Russia: maybe the Turks will someday take  advantage of this insidiously, I do not exclude this, but today it is  so. Now we have such a situation that is not very characteristic of  our historical relations, we fought more than once. I would not want  this to happen again, but we keep all this in mind," the Russian  expert emphasized.

Also, Moscow, he added, perfectly understands the danger of Turkey's  desire to promote its pan-Turkic goals in the Transcaucasus too. "We  are not going to support or ignore this. But in the current scenario,  Russia will maintain a balance of "neither peace nor war," which  suits it," Mikheev summed up.