Recep Tayyip Erdogan's victory in the second round of presidential elections in Turkey will completely free Turkey's hands in the region. Turkologist Andranik Ispiryan stated this in an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am.

According to the Turkish Studies expert, this result of the presidential runoff was already clear from the results of the first round of presidential elections in Turkey, and Erdogan's election was not a surprise, despite the small percentage difference.

"Erdogan's victory in the second round was mainly ensured by [former presidential candidate] Sinan Ogan, who got 5 percent in the first round, who advised his voters to choose Erdogan, and of course the administrative resource, which was a common phenomenon in these elections," said Ispiryan.

According to Ispiryan, Erdogan's victory will completely free Turkey’s hands of in the region, and this is very dangerous for Armenia as well.

"[Azerbaijani president] Aliyev, who is waiting for Erdogan's victory like air and water, will try to increase the pressure on Armenia by using the Turkey factor. And the process of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations will be unsmooth and in uncertainty, as Erdogan will try to extract maximum concessions from Armenia, especially since the Armenian side is still trying to normalize relations [with Turkey] without preconditions with baseless optimism. Turkey's steps regarding the installation of the [Operation] Nemesis monument [in Yerevan] are an important alarm for the Armenia’s authorities that Turkey is still far from accepting Armenia as a friend. The steps [by Armenia] to normalize relations with Turkey must be very cautious and measured. Otherwise, the consequences will be irreversible in the context of such developments in the region," Ispiryan concluded.