View from Moscow: It is high time for Yerevan to get rid of illusions  on the issue of normalizing relations with Turkey

ArmInfo. It is high time for Yerevan to get rid of illusions on the issue of normalizing relations with Turkey. Victor Nadein-Raevsky, Ph.D. in Philosophy, director of  the Institute of Political and Social Studies of the Black  Sea-Caspian region, senior researcher of IMEMO RAS (Russia) expressed  a similar opinion to ArmInfo.

"Everything, literally everything, is on the surface and is visible  even to the naked eye. Turkey and Azerbaijan act in a single bond and  pursue a rather ingenious policy in all vectors, including the  Russian one. Their cooperation with the West is also similarly  situational, which Ankara and Baku also bring under their interests.  Against such a background, the current policy and calculations of  Yerevan, to put it mildly, raise questions," he said.

The expert believes that Ankara's periodic mention of the absence of  prerequisites for the process of Armenian-Turkish normalization is  Turkey's desire to formalize this process properly, first of all, for  its visual perception by the West. While in reality there is simply  no meaningful meaning in these statements, in his opinion. Since the  mere linking of Turkey's own interests in this matter with the  interests of Azerbaijan is already a precondition.

Meanwhile, according to Nadein-Raevsky, the interconnectedness of the  processes between Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan is already quite  openly mentioned in the administration of the Azerbaijani president.   And before that, this was quite clear based on the statements of  Turkish high-ranking officials. All this together allows us to assert  that without the consent of Baku, Turkey will not make a single step  towards the Armenian direction.  "In other words, it is obvious that  Baku will give Ankara consent to the same opening of the Armenian-  Turkish border only when an agreement is reached in the  Armenian-Azerbaijani direction. Opening the border between Armenia  and Turkey without negotiations over the signing of a peace treaty  between Armenia and Azerbaijan is impossible. This is a reality that  cannot be ignored. Everything else in the Armenian-Turkish  normalization is derived precisely from this reality," the  orientalist summed up.