ArmInfo. Turkey and its junior ally Azerbaijan are seeking to radically change the political map of the South Caucasus, Armen Gevorgyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, stated at the Wednesday discussions on Honouring of obligations and commitments by Turkey.
Some of the EU member states hopes that admission to the EU will encourage Turkey to respect the European rules of the game. But Turkey itself rejected that way in favor of its own ambitions to become leader in the Muslim world and in the entire region without any foreign commitments, Mr Gevorgyan said.
Two Armenian administrations in the past attempted to negotiate new relations with Turkey. In this context, Mr Gevorgyan pointed out the fact that in all the previous cases, despite international support or pressure, Turkey would set pout preconditions at a certain moment thereby undermining the process.
While it has been calling for peace and stability in the South Caucasus for over 25 years, Turkey has been refusing to reopen its border with Armenia.
Turkey has never concealed its political, military and other support to Azerbaijan and its sponsorship of Azerbaijan's military aggressions against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. Turkey and its junior ally Azerbaijan are seeking to radically change the political map of the South Caucasus, with a new architecture of regional security and stability, with full-fledged dominance of the Turkic world and "total neutralization" of the Armenian Cause, Mr Gevorgyan said.
The factor of Turkey has turned into a serious domestic political challenge to many European nations.
The world is now witnessing a new Armenian-Turkish dialogue, but unjust peace is always fragile. There are fears that this dialogue will once again show Turkish dominance, with regional changes in conformity with Turkey's own conception of each nation's role, Mr Gevorgyan said. He recalled Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu's demands addressed to the descendants of the Armenian Genocide victims in Strasbourg. That was the latest example of anti-Armenian rhetoric, with Mr Cavusoglu calling on the Turkish community in democratic France to oppose the French Armenians, who have for the past 100 years greatly contributed to the development of democratic Europe. And it is not only the Armenian Diaspora, but also most of Armenia's people are reluctant to trust Turkey, a neighbor refusing to admit its past deeds, unwilling to draw reasonable conclusions in its foreign policy, preferring ethnic and religious priorities in regional relations, Mr Gevorgyan said.
He stressed he will never believe that PACE or any other organizations based on European values could allow Turkey to serve its selfish interests by abusing the long-term confidence by the European community.