Ankara in control of Armenia-Turkiye `normalization` - Russian expert 

ArmInfo.  Armenian-Turkish "normalization" is taking place in fact and under the dictation of Ankara. This is the opinion of Russian political scientist Sergei  Markedonov.

The Russian expert recalled that earlier, the speaker of the Armenian  parliament and one of the closest associates of Prime Minister Nikol  Pashinyan, Alen Simonyan, announced the visit of the head of  government to Turkey, calling it historic, because the head of  Armenia will make a visit at such a level for the first time.

At the same time, Markedonov noted that politicians are not obliged  to engage in historical science and analytical work, they have other  fundamental goals and objectives. "Otherwise, Simonyan would have  recalled one interesting Armenian-Turkish anomaly. The two countries  do not have diplomatic relations and open borders. However, all the  leaders of Armenia (both during its presidential and parliamentary  republics) have visited Turkey," he recalled.

The expert presented in detail the chronicle of the visits of four  Armenian leaders to the neighboring country in his Telegram channel,  and noted that the "normalization" of bilateral relations began long  before Pashinyan.

"In June 1992, in an interview with the well-known Turkish  publication Cumhuriyet ("Republic"), Ter- Petrosyan said that he  would like to see the neighboring country as a friendly and partner  state. The problem is that the conflict around Karabakh, in general,  problems with Azerbaijan (not only Armenia, by the way, but also  Turkey) pushed the declarative phase of "normalization" away from  practical steps.  Secondly, the process of pragmatization of  Armenian-Turkish relations went in fits and starts, up and down.  For  Armenia, the peak of success can be considered "football diplomacy"  and the Zurich Protocols of 2009.  Then there was a decline," the  Russian political scientist recalled.

He then added that in 1991-2020, it was rather the Armenian side that  was on the rise.

"Today, the Turkic tandem has caught the geopolitical "bird of  happiness" by the tail. "Normalization" is actually being dictated by  Ankara. Only the Turkish side is putting forward conditions, Armenia  is retreating. And it is not only and not even so much a matter of  geopolitics, nation-building and national- state identity are being  significantly adjusted. "Neo-normalization" is still going one way,  no matter what anyone says about the trade and economic benefits for  Armenians after the opening of borders and the removal of all  barriers. Here, by the way, it is high time to think about the  "benefits" for Russia, which will most likely consist in the  compression of its influence in the Transcaucasus," the expert noted.  In conclusion, he noted that there will most likely be no fanfares or  breakthroughs on June 6-20, 2025, although those who want to find  them will find them! "Ankara is in no hurry. Its reason is obvious:  peace between Yerevan and Baku on de facto Azerbaijani terms, after  which "normalization", where Turkey, understandably, will not  demonstrate miracles of altruism! Thus, the process ("normalization")  is formally uniform, but its semantic content in different periods is  very different. But this is History!", he summed up.