“Turkey is unaware of what it wants” Richard Giragosian, the Director of the Center for National and International Studies, told the journalists today commenting on Armenia-Turkey relations normalization and added that Turkey significantly underestimated Azerbaijan’s reaction to this matter. According to him, even if Armenia-Turkey border will not open, it can be already considered partially open due to Gul’s visit to Yerevan, as well as the visit of Turkish scholars to Armenia to discuss Genocide.

According to Giragosian, Genocide issue is to be discussed in Turkey, not in Washington or Brussels. “Turkey’s approach on this matter issue might detect whether it will become a normal country or not. For Turkey it is a matter the future, not present and it will decide what country it will be like,” the politician underlined, adding that most probably Serzh Sargsyan will go to October football match in Turkey. If Turkey does not take certain steps to normalize Armenia-Turkey relations before that, it will be pressurized by international community.

Richard Giragosian also referred to the repeated statements of Ankara not to open Armenian-Turkish border till the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and said: “Turkish President and Prime-Minister act like good and bad cops, Armenia is their main addressee. Thereby Turkey tries to strengthen Aliyev’s positions,” stated the expert. “On the other hand, Turkey strives to indicate progress in Armenian-Turkish relations, that is why it is unaware of what it wants”, Giragosian concluded.