NEWS.am continues to publish comments on whether RA President Serzh Sargsyan should visit Turkey or not. The visit was planned in return for Turkish President Abdullah Gul’s vitis to Yerevan. However, pressurized by Azerbaijan Turkish side started putting preconditions and link Armenia-Turkey normalization to Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. And by doing so, Turkey comes in contradiction with the ‘road-map’ that Foreign Ministries of Armenia and Turkey have agreed upon. Russian experts assess the situation:

“Definitely, Armenia-Turkey relations need to be normalized however, the process should not develop at the expense of Armenian unilateral concessions,” Russian Strategic Culture Foundation expert declared.

He hailed RA President’s statement (on that he will not visit Turkey unless Armenia-Turkey border is opened) as quite an adequate tactical step that “gives Turkish leadership an opportunity to demonstrate whether their intentions towards Armenia are fair or not.”

As Armenian President has not made his final decision “all depends on whether Turkish side will reveal a constructive approach or not.” The expert reckons that the visit may as well take place as a full-fledged official visit rather than within the framework of the ‘football diplomacy’. Areshev considers it will be more reasonable rather than “making steps unconditioned by the actual situation.”

As Turkish side is making contradicting statements, the expert wonders whether unblocking of Armenian border gate is at all a topical issue in Turkey: “This problem is mostly treated as a game with the United States and the European Union. What we see in reality is Turkish PM Erdogan’s statement directly linking Karabakh issue under Azeri conditions with opening of the [Armenia-Turkey] border.”

However, Head of Russian Military Forecast Center Anatoly Tsyganok has a diametrically opposite opinion. Tsyganok told NEWS.am that RA President Serzh Sargsyan should visit Turkey regardless developments in Armenia-Turkey diplomatic relations. “Armenian President should not miss the opportunity to have a direct talk with Turkish President,” Tsyganok asserted.

Alexander Sungurov, President of the Saint Petersburg Centre for Humanities and Political Studies “Strategy”, also said President of Armenia should make the visit.