“If the decision by Armenia to stop the approval process of the protocols is not a move to influence President Barack Obama’s April 24 speech, then that means the process is in serious trouble,” reads the article by Gurkan Zengin in Today’s Zaman. The author says that efforts by Turkish authorities to drag the process were unsuccessful.

Zengin deems one should not forget about the Russian factor in normalization process. He recalls words by Russian ambassador to Turkey Vladimir Ivanovskiy who says that nothing will change in the Caucasus “as long as Russia opposes ‘foreign formulas for the region’ and rejects the idea of ‘putting pressure on the sides’.”

“It seems that while Russia supports the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey, it does not want relations with Azerbaijan to be improved,” the author says.

“There are two tasks in the American administration’s South Caucasus file: The first is to compensate for their lack of vision on the &‘genocide bill’ with the speech Obama will deliver on April 24, and the second — to &‘encourage’ Moscow to prompt Armenians to take action,” the author concludes.