Turkey suffers policy defeat in Middle East – Armenian analyst

In an interview with Tert.am, political analyst Sergey Minasyan shared his comments on Turkey’s current policies towards Syria, describing them as a major defeat not only in relation to that country but also across the Middle East region.

In his words, the developments led to a scenario that turned out to be the contrary of what Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu earlier declared as “zero problems with neighbors”.  

“Turkey’s foreign policies suffered total defeat in the Middle East. And what's even more, there is absolutely no neighbor Turkey does not have problems with at the moment. As it is often said, Turkey wishes to pursue the policy of zero problems with neighbors, but what it gets in return is 'zero neighbors without problems'. That’s obvious. As for the Syrian territory proper, we see that all the attempts failed, the fact having become more obvious after Russia launched its military operations in Syria, seizing the initiative not only from Turkey but also the other sides,” he said.

Asked about possible benefits for the Armenian side, Minasyan said he thinks that successful Syrian operation against the Islamic States promise a positve outcome. “If the Syrian Army manages - with the help of Russians and the international coalitions - to hold a victory in the fight against the Islamic State, it will be positive also for the Armenian community. Understandably, the Armenian side cannot have other approaches to the Islamic State or the anti-Assad insurgents, because it is impossible to treat differently people who exploded the Armenian church of Der-ez-Zor. On the other hand, we clearly see that the Russia-Turkey relations have become extremely tense against the backdrop of the operations in Syria. So I think that makes the situation favorable for us.”