17.06.2021, Moscow.
The declaration signed in Shushi is another step towards the construction of a new Turkish empire by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This was stated by Director of the Middle East Institute Yevgeny Satanovsky on June 16, Sputnik Armenia reports.
According to Satanovsky, the document signed by the presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan describes everything clearly, including defense issues.
“Azerbaijan and Turkey are now allies. Of course, the signing of [declaration] in Shushi is a serious sign. But Erdoğan has ambitious enough plans for the post-Soviet space, especially the Turkic countries, and the Turkic regions of Russia. He has never concealed this․ He is realizing them [these plans],” the expert stressed.
According to Satanovsky, Erdoğan is using two tools to build a new Turkish empire. The first is Pan-Turkism, and the second is political Islam, which is used in regions outside the Turkic world, as Pan-Turkism is not popular there.
“Erdoğan is building a new empire, we can see this, also from the Shushi Declaration,” said the Director of the Middle East Institute.
At the same time, he pointed out that in the post-Soviet space these Turkish tools are treated with great caution. This can be seen from the position of the government of Turkmenistan, said Satanovsky.
The expert found it difficult to assess how the plans of Turkey to build an empire conform with the plans of Azerbaijan. According to him, he has not heard anything on this subject from the Azerbaijani leadership so far.
“Turkey’s support at least brought Azerbaijan victory in the Karabakh war,” Satanovski said.
At the same time, he noted that statements about the readiness to “take Baku” voiced in Stepanakert [capital of Nagorno-Karabakh] turned out to be more than groundless. According to the expert, the responsibility for this lies first of all with acting Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, but not only.
The thing is that Karabakh was at war not with Azerbaijan but with Turkey – with the generals, drone operators, mercenaries from Syria, Satanovski said. Had it not been for the Russian troops, Armenian Karabakh would cease to exist.
During the last days of the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani military seized Shushi. After this, on November 9 a trilateral agreement was signed by the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan on a cease-fire in Karabakh. A Russian peacekeeping contingent was introduced into the region.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
