Orientalist: Turkey`s presence in the South Caucasus is in itself a  threat to regional security

ArmInfo.Turkey's presence in the South Caucasus is in itself a threat to regional security.  This was stated by Ruben Melkonyan, Dean of the Faculty of Oriental  Studies of Yerevan State University, during the conference "Armenia  and Turkey in the South Caucasus: Realities and Risks" on April 23.

The Dean stated that after the last Karabakh war, a new geopolitical  and social reality was created in Armenia and the South Caucasus.   According to him, this means that one of the security trenches has  been ceded, and the enemy and the threats emanating from it have come  even closer to the Armenian statehood and borders.

During his speech, he touched upon the issue of border demarcation,  recalling that after the last war in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict  zone, this issue surfaced. He pointed to the strange delineation of  the Armenian-Azerbaijani border through the GPS system and hidden  threats, as a result of this method of demarcation.

To illustrate the threats, Melikyan cited the situation on the  Armenian-Turkish border as an example.  He recalled that the modern  borders of Armenia and Turkey were defined by the Treaty of Kars,  which is already 100 years old. The orientalist is convinced that the  recognition of the Kara Treaty is extremely important for official  Ankara, since it is one of the three main preconditions of Turkey in  relation to Armenia and the Armenians.

"This is the suspension of the process of international recognition  of the Armenian Genocide, the recognition of the Kara Treaty, and a  solution to the Karabakh issue that is beneficial for Azerbaijan. One  of these preconditions Turkey, through aggression, actually partially  managed to solve. I'm sure it won't be long. Nevertheless, the  remaining two preconditions remain on Turkey's agenda, " Melkonyan  said, warning that in case of illiterate foreign policy and  diplomacy, Armenia may be trapped in Turkey.

According to him, on the basis of the Kara Treaty, the first  demarcation of the Armenian-Turkish border was carried out in  1924-26, and over time the issue of a new demarcation became  relevant, the most global one was carried out in the 70s of the last  century between the USSR and Turkey, in which there is no signature  of the representative of the ASSR due to the presence of the Kara  Treaty in the protocol.  Speaking about today's realities, the  orientalist stated that today, from a real political point of view,  Armenia has no territorial claims against Turkey, but at the same  time, Armenia has not declared that it recognizes the Kara Treaty.   "This is due to the fact that this document was signed with a weak,  losing Armenia, the people did not agree, did not accept this  document. If we draw analogs, the situation today is similar. We  cannot accept the loss of Shusha and Hadrut. And if, for example, we  are now offered to sign a document where Shushi and Hadrut are part  of Azerbaijan, I am sure that citizens, the scientific community, and  probably government officials will oppose this, " the expert said,  recalling that the Kara Treaty was mentioned in the statement to the  Zurich Protocols, which the then Armenian Foreign Minister Edward  Nalbandian refused to sign. Speaking about the current realities of  the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, Melkonyan expressed  his conviction that Ankara will try to impose the recognition of the  Kars Treaty on Yerevan in some hidden form as a precondition for the  establishment of diplomatic relations. At the same time, he called on  the Armenian authorities to be careful and not to fall into this  hidden Turkish trap, because if this issue is not relevant in the  political realities, then the situation may change.