YEREVAN. - Turkey wishes to become leader in the Islamic world, said turkologist Ruben Melkonyan during a press conference held today. Reflecting on Turkish-Israeli relations, Melkonyan noted that military cooperation was the most developed of those relations, and, by putting military agreements on hold and bringing diplomatic relations to a minimum, these relations will change considerably.  

Reminding that Turkey had demanded from Israel to apologize for the incident with the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, Ruben Melkonyan stated: “This demand is made by a country which, for over 90 years, refuses to apologize for 1.5 million victims. This demand is made by a country which, for approximately 20 years, has unlawfully blockaded Armenia.” He also added that Israel will step up its efforts toward recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In Melkonyan’s words, certain countries try to make use of the Armenian Genocide issue for political objectives and that cannot be considered sincere, but rather order of the moment.