Turkey Dividing South Caucasus, Director Of Eastern Studies Says

TURKEY DIVIDING SOUTH CAUCASUS, DIRECTOR OF EASTERN STUDIES SAYS

Panorama.am
18:21 27/07/2007

Director of Easter Studies of the Armenian National Academy
of Sciences Ruben Safrastyan called "non realistic" Turkey’s
militaristic statements on invading North Iraq. Safrastyan said
so at a press conference today also saying, "Turkey is pursuing a
terrorizing policy, nothing more." He said there are 100 government
-member Kurds in Turkey and Turkey may not be willing to lose the
trust of those Kurds. In the words of the academician, the Turkish
nation is also against a possible war. He said so referring to $2.2
bln annual trade turnover between Turkey and North Iraq. However,
Safrastyan believes there will be more political pressures on Kurd
population and attacks of small-scale detachments are possible.

Referring to Turkey’s foreign policy, the expert in eastern studies
mentioned that the Turkish government has launched "actions of
partition" in South Caucasus and has plans to set up an alliance
where Georgia and Azerbaijan will be at the core. In his words,
the Alliance will be economic at the outset and will grow into a
military-political alliance. "This is an unprecedented process,
especially for this region," Safrastyan said.