What happened in Kazakhstan, naturally, is the result of both internal political and, by and large, geopolitical processes, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Foreign Minister David Babayan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
"Of course, one should not completely ignore the internal political reasons, the various preconditions of political, social significance. Nevertheless, far-reaching geopolitical steps were the catalyst and the main goal. The Pan-Turkic circles played a special role. The fact that Kazakhstan has a special significance for Pan-Turkic ideas, I believe, is quite obvious.
First of all, it was relatively easy to work there for those circles, the country is much more open than other countries in the region, the country is multinational in its composition, there are many organizations. Moreover, there is practically no guarded border with Russia; that is, there is a possibility of penetration of different types of flows into Russia through Kazakhstan, which is also one of the main goals of the Pan-Turkic circles.
This is evidenced by the hysterical attitude in Turkey and Azerbaijan. True, a ‘camouflage’ approach was manifested there. The authorities seem to be in favor of neutrality, but the most various circles—politicians, analysts, public circles which are funded by the government—that express the real opinion of the authorities have geopolitical ambitions and goals, and at the same time voice accusations against the CSTO, Russia, Armenia—in terms of Pan-Turkism.
Why, after all, Kazakhstan? As already mentioned, it is more open, it has huge resources—oil, [natural] gas, uranium, other resources—and at the same time, it is very volatile in terms of engagement, and influence on neighboring countries. Naturally, if the Pan-Turkic circles managed to seize power in Kazakhstan, the struggle would not end with that. Representatives of different peoples live side by side in Kazakhstan. The centrifugal trends that have emerged would inevitably reflect on Russia, China, the Russian population living in Kazakhstan.
The situation was fraught with an explosion, which would spread to many neighboring countries and cover a large geopolitical area, cause a huge outbreak of violence, destabilize the situation. This would give an opportunity for Turkey to be more actively engaged. We now see Ankara actively promoting the resolution of Turkic unity, sending soldiers to the armed units of the Turkic states. This is a clear indication that they intend to continue to act in a destructive spirit.
It is necessary to pay attention to the excellent readiness of 20 thousand militants. This actually means that they were able to take control of a large area, including Almaty, for some time. Many analysts make assumptions that the militants had come from Afghanistan, elsewhere. That route is possible. But there is also a shorter and absolutely uncontrolled route—from Turkey via Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea. There are many grounds to assume that this very route was used. The outbreak of anti-Russian and anti-Armenian rhetoric in Baku and Ankara testifies to the same thing; that is, we see a planned action to destabilize the situation. Probably they did not think that such attempts would be stopped so abruptly.
The CSTO operations showed the effectiveness of the peacekeeping operation. But I believe that the battle is not over, nonetheless, and there will be attempts to destabilize the situation in other Central Asian countries as well. We see Pan-Turkism in action.
We should not forget the map which [Turkish president] Erdogan recent showed, and Kazakhstan plays one of the key roles there because it will be incomparably more difficult without pushing Kazakhstan's pan-Turkism forward against Russia and China. These are the planned actions of Turkey and the Pan-Turkic circles to implement the dangerous expansionist project. I believe if implemented, the project would pose a deadly danger for us as well. They do not conceal this in Turkey, Turkish politicians cite Karabakh as an example of the main result of Turkish unity. These processes have quite a certain interconnectedness.
Therefore, it is necessary to stop the radical Pan-Turkish vectors cool-headedly, by not giving in to emotions—and we see such inadequate perceptions. The result may be the ‘fire’ on a global scale," the Artsakh FM concluded.
