The Armenian side cannot but be concerned over Turkish and Azerbaijani top-ranking officials’ recent statements linking the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement and Nagorno-Karabakh peace processes. Despite the international mediators’ statements and the Armenian authorities’ unequivocal assurances that the two processes are simultaneous, but independent of each other, the Armenian and Turkish repeatedly state the opposite. Were it the same old game of official Baku, it could go unnoticed. However, Azerbaijani and Turkish officials have recently acted in unison.

The nearer is the end of internal political consultations on the Armenian-Turkish Protocols and the date of signing the more often official Ankara has called on international mediators to intensify their efforts toward settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davudoglu has made a number of statements to this effect. At his meeting with the managers of local media outlets late last week, Turkish Premier Recep Erdoğan ruled out the reopening of the Armenian-Turkish border before the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been settled.

This policy has certainly evoked the Azerbaijani authorities’ favorable response read out by the official representative of the Azerbaijani Foreign Office Elhan Polukhov. “We did not expect any different position from our Turkish partners. We are satisfied with the position taken by Premier Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He keeps his promise to Azerbaijan: the Turkish-Armenian border will not be reopened until the Nagorno-Karabakh problem is resolved,” Polukhov told 1news.az.

It is noteworthy that, over this period of “football diplomacy”, we have been hearing the phrasemonger officials, international mediators, all kinds of comments by experts and journalists in all the countries of the region, followed by specific steps and signed documents, which, to put it mildly, are not quite in line with all the talks. However, it does not mean all the information, and unfavorable tendencies for the Armenian side, should be ignored. Incidentally, unfavorable tendencies have lately been obvious.