Armenian-Turkish-Azerbaijani negotiations not ruled out - Ruben  Melkonyan

ArmInfo.Given a number of geopolitical factors, prospects of a new negotiation format for regional problems involving Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey should not  at all be ruled out, Ruben Melkonyan, Professor at the Faculty of  Oriental Studies, Yerevan State University, said in an interview with  ArmInfo.

"It is what Ankara is seeking and Yerevan is not opposing yet.  Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned a desire to  organize such negotiations at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. And I do  not think the incumbent Armenian authorities' potential could allow  them to oppose - at last for a long period - Turkey's diplomatic  proposals. As to the specific type of format, it is another question.  However, the fact is that it is going to be Armenia's diplomatic  capitulation," Mr Melkonyan said. 

In this context, he emphasizes Turkey's growing role in the  international relations and politics. In recent years, Ankara has  managed to ensure its presence in numerous global and regional  affairs both as a direct participant and mediator. As a result, the  superpowers are perceiving Erdogan-led Turkey at a rather different  level than a couple of decades ago.  In this context, Mr Melkonyan  points out the recent Russian- Ukrainian negotiations mediated by  Turkey.  

Elaborating on the Armenian-Turkish agenda, he stressed that Turkey's  policy of preconditions toward Armenia has not changed over the last  three decades. But Yerevan is totally blind to it, evidence thereof  being Armenian diplomats' statements on the opposite made at  different levels - unwillingness to listen to either local experts or  messages by President Recep Erdogan himself. 

"To name only Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's appeal to  Armenia to show more courage.  Besides its direct sense - the special  envoys' meetings in Yerevan and Ankara - it also carries an  implication: Armenia's leadership should display more boldness to  cross the redlines set for Armenian nationhood. And all with  Armenian-Turkish relations being, in fact, part of global geopolitics  with the superpowers' involvement. I think that reducing it to the  bilateral relations alone - a desire of both Ankara and Yerevan - is  not only primitive, but is also in conflict with Armenia's interests.  And exclusion of a third party from the Armenian-Turkish process is  only in the interests of Turkey and, consequently, of Azerbaijan, but  not at all of Armenia. And the ruling party failing to understand it  is nothing but a criminal luxury they have no right to afford," Mr  Melkonyan said.