The Turks threaten to deprive Armenia of Yerevan

The Turkic world offers Armenia a platform for cooperation, threatening to continue to seize its territories. Armenia's revanchist ambition is expected to grow.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan, while on a visit to Baku, where he took part in the military parade of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in honor of the victory in Nagorno-Karabakh, said that a platform of six was to to be set up in the South Caucasus for the development of cooperation.

He invited Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia, Iran, Georgia and, "if desired," Armenia to participate in the "South Caucasian Platform."

"We are supporters of peace in the region, we are ready to open doors for Armenia. We have no problems with the Armenian people," Erdogan said adding that the people of Armenia should find some sense.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev supported him.

"If the Armenian leadership draws the right conclusions from the war, renounces its unfounded claims and looks ahead, then there will be a place for Armenia on this platform. We are open for this," the Azerbaijani leader said.

However, Aliyev stated the same day that Zangezur, Sevan and Yerevan are "the historical land of the people of Azerbaijanis." These are the territories that are located within the internationally recognised state borders of the Republic of Armenia. In other words, Aliyev threatened Armenia: if Armenia turns the "cooperation" offer down, Azerbaijan will continue conquering Armenia's territories. 

The South Caucasus Platform has no prospects

Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Research did not see any prospects in Erdogan and Aliyev's proposal. The reasons are the following:

1. Without Armenia this platform is completely irrelevant, but with Armenia it is impossible to build it, because Armenia's and Turkey's relations with Azerbaijan cannot be positive now, nor can they have any bright prospects;
2. There is no basis for such an association, because trade relations do not play a dominant role in the region nor are they going to show any sings of development in the near future;
3. The relations between Iran and Turkey "are not simple either."

Revanchism in Armenia is expected to grow

Regarding Aliyev's rhetoric about Armenia's "unfounded claims", the expert explained that the matter concerns the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. For the time being, Azerbaijan has abandoned the idea of a military solution to the Stepanakert problem, but Nagorno-Karabakh does not have any status. Therefore, the problem can only be postponed, rather than resolved, Vladimir Bruter noted.

He recalled that as a result of the Armenian-Turkish war of 1919-1920, Armenia "lost half of its territory." And as long Armenia remains a "pure victim" of the Turkic world, which is far more superior, Armenia will have complaints. After all, one cannot compress Armenia to the size of two or three cities and say: "Well, that's all for you."

"Of course, the Armenians will have revanchist ambition. They lost vigilance after Nikol Pashinyan came to power. They stopped understanding their priorities and they eventually had to pay the price for it," said the political scientist. "The situation is frozen, and it cannot be unfrozen the way that Aliyev suggests, because, in my opinion, there are no grounds for cooperation," concluded Vladimir Bruter.

Babken Tunyan, a deputy from Armenia's "My Step" ruling bloc, said, when commenting to the opportunity for Armenia to participate in the "format of six", that Armenia is already a member of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, which includes Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Therefore, if Turkey has mutually beneficial proposals to offer, one can discuss them within the existing format, Tunyan noted.