Policy analyst says Serzh should turn down football invitation

Richard Giragosian, director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) advises the Armenian president not to go to Turkey for the World Cup qualifier between Turkish and Armenian soccer teams (on October 14), this way responding to the October 11 statement made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It is noteworthy that a day after the protocols on the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations were signed in Zurich, Erdogan once again stated that Armenia “must withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh” and that Turkey “cannot open the borders with Armenia until Armenia withdraws its troops from the conflict zone.”

Richard Giragosian, director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) advises the Armenian president not to go to Turkey for the World Cup qualifier between Turkish and Armenian soccer teams (on October 14), this way responding to the October 11 statement made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

It is noteworthy that a day after the protocols on the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations were signed in Zurich, Erdogan once again stated that Armenia “must withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh” and that Turkey “cannot open the borders with Armenia until Armenia withdraws its troops from the conflict zone.”

According to Giragosian, October 10 made Turkey’s tactics of “playing with Armenia and dragging time” obvious to everybody, and, first of all, to the international community.

By threatening to leave and having made the Turkish side remove the unacceptable (for Armenia) wording from the post-signing statement (to be made by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu) Armenia passed a unique diplomatic test set by Turkey, but the game has only started and many such tests to be yet expected.

Turkey respects and reckons with the viewpoints of only those countries which demonstrate strength; that is why Armenia must develop a strong diplomatic strategy. It is clear that Turkey is playing “good cop” (Abdullah Gul), “bad cop” (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) game and the logical response to it should be either Serzh Sargsyan’s refusal to visit Bursa or a threat to do so in case the Turkish side does not stop taking provocative steps, concluded Giragosian.