Turkey seeks to become a regional superpower, and the Armenia-initiated football diplomacy gave impetus to it, the political scientist Yervand Bozoyan told journalists on June 8.
Football diplomacy granted Turkey a right to mediation in Caucasian problems, Bozoyan said pointing out Ankara seeks to become a major regional force.
“Turkey spares no effort to restore the bygone glory of the Ottoman Empire. In that context its influence has dramatically increased in both the Caucasus and Middle East,” Bozoyan said. Turkey goes even further in its claims, seeking leadership in the Islamic World as well, the expert said. As for the obvious thaw in Russian-Turkish relations, Bozoyan said the purely economic bilateral relations may one day develop into military cooperation.
There are not purely economic relations, eventually they may develop into stronger ties. Due to its flexible policy, Turkey managed to improve relations with Syria and Iran. “However, Armenia seems to have ‘fallen out’ of Turkey’s principle ‘zero problems with neighbors’, and normalization is unlikely in the foreseeable future,” Bozoyan said.
New.am
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