YEREVAN. – No progress has been achieved in the Armenia-Turkey rapprochement following parliamentary elections in Turkey, Director of Oriental Studies Institute of Armenian National Academy of Sciences, expert in Turkic studies Ruben Safrastyan told a press conference in Yerevan on Wednesday.

“I do not see any prerequisites for “Justice and Development” party to change its attitude towards Armenia.  In his victory speech Erdogan appealed to his party members, stressing it is their brothers’ victory, in the name of Baku too.  We can say for sure Turkey will not change its attitude towards normalization with Armenia,” the expert emphasized.

Safrastyan noted unless a breakthrough is achieved in Karabakh conflict resolution, Turkey will not open the border and establish diplomatic relations with Armenia.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier, October 10, 2009, in Zurich, Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and Turkey signed the “Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations” and “Protocol for the development of bilateral relations”, which needed to be ratified by the parliaments of the two countries. However, this did not happen.

The signing ceremony was attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and France Bernard Kouchner, as well as Secretary General of the Council of the European Union Javier Solana. The signing ceremony was at the center of the world’s attention, broadcast on 70 TV channels.

However, on December 7, 2009, Turkey linked the Armenian-Turkish process to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. During a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara would not ratify the Armenian-Turkish protocols without resolution of the Karabakh conflict. On April 22, 2010, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree suspending the ratification process.