United World International expert Mehmet Perinçek provided an interview to the Azerbaijani news outlet minval.az. Perinçek spoke about the exclusion of the West from the Southern Caucasus and the rapproachment between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Below we present the interview as published by minval.az. The original text can be read here.
Is it necessary to normalize relations between Armenia and Turkey, as well as Azerbaijan and Armenia? Yes, that is indeed needed. Turkish political scientist and historian Mehmet Perinçek expressed this point of view in an interview with Minval.az.
We need to normalize our relations, because regional integration will gain more and more influence between countries in the future, Perinçek said.
In the context of the Ukrainian-Russian crisis, as the expert notes, such an improvement in relations is of particular importance. Stability, peace, economic development are very important for all regional actors, and economic integration will provide the region and its countries with protection from the interference of external players. Thus, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Armenia will be able to ensure their national security.
“Therefore, the restoration of relations between Armenia and Turkey plays an important role right now. Indeed, at the moment, Armenia does not have the strength to make any territorial claims, and therefore dictate some conditions. On the other hand, the Armenian people lost their interest in the Karabakh territories. This experiment failed both economically and politically. Now the Armenians need economic integration much more as a means to solve the country’s economic and social problems,” Perinçek said.
In his opinion, the desire of the Armenian people for external and internal changes also affected the results of the elections in Armenia, although shortly before that, Nikol Pashinyan had suffered a crushing defeat as a result of the 44-day war. After all, it was Pashinyan who offered the Armenians a new reality – peace and economic integration with neighboring countries.
The large percentage of desertion in the Armenian army also indicates that many ordinary citizens did not support the war and did not want to fight for foreign territory. The facts show that most of the Armenian people do not support the revanchist sentiments of some forces in the country. That means the people desire changes, and do not follow the schizophrenia of some reactionary elements.
On the other hand, according to him, the Ukrainian crisis has shown that Western countries often do not “support their henchmen.” Pashinyan was left alone in the 44-day war, France and other countries with a pro-Armenian position did not come to the aid of Yerevan, and regional forces in the form of the Ankara-Baku-Moscow alliance have certainly dominated. The same can be attributed to the Ukrainian crisis.
“The events taking place in Ukraine and the detachment of the West, which did not come to the aid of Kiev, are also indicative for Armenia. And they understand that there will be no real help from the West to Yerevan in case of any new territorial claims against the countries of the region or hypothetical wars,” the expert noted.
Therefore, Perinçek believes, all this pushes many in Armenia to an objective way out – cooperation and the search for a dialogue with Azerbaijan and Turkey.
“The Armenian people do not have the strength for aggression, there is no will and no support from external forces. Armenia cannot implement its list of claims against Azerbaijan and Turkey, and Yerevan knows about it. Therefore, Azerbaijan and Turkey need to increase their cooperation with Armenia, develop the common regional integration of countries, and various joint economic, cultural, and transport projects will contribute to this process,” our interlocutor concluded.