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Expert: Building New Relationship With Armenia Means Changing Relati

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  • Expert: Building New Relationship With Armenia Means Changing Relati

    EXPERT: BUILDING NEW RELATIONSHIP WITH ARMENIA MEANS CHANGING RELATIONS WITH ALL SOUTH CAUCASUS

    ARKA
    Apr 30, 2009

    YEREVAN, April 30. /ARKA/. Turkey changes its relations with all of
    the South Caucasus while building a new relationship with Armenia,
    Director of Caucasus Institute Alexander Iskandaryan said.

    In this respect, Armenia is becoming a key country for Turkey, he said.

    Normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations is supported by the USA
    and Europe, with Russia being at least not against, Iskandaryan said
    Wednesday at "Caucasus-2008" international conference.

    According to Iskandaryan, Turkey has taken into account the possible
    reaction of Azerbaijan while starting the process of normalization
    of its relations with Armenia.

    Armenia-Turkey dialogue became one of the two most important events
    in the South Caucasus in 2008. The other event was the war in the
    South Ossetia.

    "These two events are somehow interconnected," Iskandaryan said.

    Both the five-day war and Armenian-Turkish dialogue were not completely
    unexpected, he said.

    According to Iskandaryan, after Mikhail Saakashvili's coming to power
    Russian-Georgian relations became "disgusting". As to Armenian-Turkish
    dialogue, the countries were taking steps even before 2008, he said.

    According to the expert, the South Ossetian war showed that building-up
    armaments and inviting foreign military instructors cannot help solve
    the problems. The war also demonstrated th at the NATO will not come
    to help, he said.

    After the August 2008 events Georgia stopped being something special
    to the West on the one hand, and Russia stopped considering Georgia
    in the context of its relations with the South Caucasus on the other
    hand, Iskandaryan said.

    Georgia became something separate and specific that exists in another
    paradigm, Iskandaryan said. According to him, the existing South
    Caucasian situation speeded up the process of Armenia-Turkey dialogue.

    The expert said that Eastern Partnership European policy opens up
    certain opportunities. He called the partnership BUMAGA (first letters
    of member countries - Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia,
    and Azerbaijan) ("bumaga" is also the Russian word for "paper").

    "It is BUMAGA where nothing has been written yet, and we can make
    notes there ourselves," Iskandaryan said.
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