Armenian News-NEWS.am posts the article “Erdogan toughens foreign policy” by Murat Yetkin published in Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review newspaper.

“It was obvious for the last two days that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would not leave Armenian President Serge Sarkisian’s words unanswered. There was a Foreign Ministry and a ruling Justice and Development Party statement on Tuesday, strongly criticizing Sarkisian because of his words on Saturday, but it is simply not Erdogan’s style to leave such an issue to cold written statements,” the newspaper reports.

“To start with, what Sarkisian had said in answer to a student was a gaffe in both diplomatic and political senses. The student had asked when the historic territories of ‘Western Armenia’ – that is a terminology used in Armenia to describe eastern Turkey – including Mount Ararat, would be “returned to Armenia,” the source says.

“Sarkisian did not try to calm down this agitated student, who was perhaps thinking of getting into a fight with Turkey to carve up its borders. Instead, he said that such a move would depend on that student’s generation. According to Sarkisian, his generation had managed to take Nagorno-Karabakh, but there might be “responsibilities to fulfill” for the next generation,” the source reads.

“When Erdogan landed in Baku and was met with red-carpet treatment there by Azeri President İlham Aliyev on Wednesday, he did not only react strongly to Sarkisian by denouncing his words as a “provocation” by even using the word “war,” but also demanded an apology from him as well.”

“That made two, after Erdogan’s apology demand from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Erdogan’s first apology demand was because of the flotilla tragedy in 2010 in which Israeli soldiers killed nine Turks aboard the aid ship Mavi Marmara, which was trying to break the blockade of Israel on the Palestinian region of Gaza,” the newspaper says.

“The issue with Israel has not been settled yet, though the Israeli prime minister is under internal and external pressure in order to smooth over its relationship with Turkey, which has game-changing capacities in the region.”

“Erdogan has already signaled that there is a “Plan B” if Israel fails to apologize and, according to whispers in diplomatic corridors, that plan may include downgrading diplomatic and security relations with Israel. Despite the crisis, Turkey continues cooperation on security, as seen in the latest example: Turkey sent an Interpol-wanted criminal to Israel who was caught by the Turkish Cypriot police in the Turkish Cypriot port of Kyrenia over the weekend, as Turkish newspaper Milliyet reported Wednesday,” the source reports.