Putin won’t be patient
Politologist Richard Giragosian says France doesn't want to see Turkey join the European Union and considers the adoption of the bill criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial by the French Senate brilliant evidence of that.
"The vote in France and the upcoming events in the Israeli and German parliaments show that genocide recognition is more powerful today than it was before. This is huge pressure on Turkey," the expert noted.
The politologist doesn't rule out Turkey's continuation of the "football diplomacy" with Armenia in order to debilitate the process of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide after the adoption of this bill.
In this sense, Richard Giragosian attaches importance to Armenia's position on the normalization of relations with Turkey without preconditions.
"Turkey has a lot on its shoulders. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has problems with Syria, Iran, Libya, Israel and finally, the United States. These are long-term issues, and Turkey doesn't see any success in terms of diplomacy. In this sense, Turkey can look away from the West and look toward the East and Armenia," the politologist said.
Richard Giragosian also touched upon the recent Dmitri Medvedev-Serzh Sargsyan-Ilham Aliyev meeting held in Sochi.
Giragosian is almost certain that Vladimir Putin will win in the Russian presidential elections, meaning there will be developments in terms of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.
"Putin will most probably be less impatient to shake hands than Medvedev is. Putin's working style is to call Aliyev and Sargsyan to a room and pressure both sides," Giragosian mentioned.
Richard Giragosian recalled that the relations between Serzh Sargsyan and Putin are not as close as the relations between Kocharyan and Putin.
