Turkey is biased mediator as it stands on Azerbaijan’s side — Dmitry Rodionov 

Speaking with Alpha News, Russian political scientist Dmitry Rodionov commented on the situation in the South Caucasus region and the goals of Turkish President “peacemaker” Erdogan.

“We should understand that Erdogan is trying to push Russia out of the position of the main mediator between Baku and Yerevan and play the role of a peacemaker who can achieve a result. It may concern the signing of a peace treaty, which has been discussed for quite a long time. I do not think Erdogan believes that he will succeed, but one way or another, he is now simultaneously trying to play ‘peacemaker’ on different tracks. He also plans to meet with Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN Assembly, and today even said that they were close to concluding agreements between Russia and Ukraine, but some lobbies allegedly disrupted it.

It is also important that if Erdogan’s game of ‘peacemaker’ on several chessboards at the same time succeeds, then he will take full credit for a huge success. Russia also advocates that there should be a peace process that sooner or later will lead to some results. But, of course, Russia would like this result to be achieved primarily with its participation. And if Erdogan achieves this, it is clear that he will try to turn this success in his favor. Again, if we are talking about the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization, we need to understand Erdogan’s goal in all this. Of course, putting himself in the role of a peacemaker, he will get political points, it is all very good, of course, but his main goal in the region is to force corridors to the Caspian Sea. And here we are coming back to the topic of Syunik’s ‘Zangezur corridor’ and how beneficial it really is to Russia. The issue is quite controversial because Turkey and Azerbaijan benefit from it, which is absolutely unequivocal.

But, for example, Russia and Iran may have certain questions. How beneficial is it for them? Because if Erdogan gets access to the Caspian Sea, he gets access to the countries of Central Asia, where he will increase his influence, and Russia’s influence will decrease accordingly. You see, the countries of Central Asia are not even sitting on two chairs; they are sitting on four chairs. There is also the influence of China and the ‘Anglo-Saxons’, and Turkey will not succeed in ousting the positions of China and the ‘Anglo-Saxons’, but it will be much easier to oust the positions of Russia.

Therefore, we are not particularly interested in him getting there, and in the case of the opening of the border and the full resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, this is inevitable, so there are advantages, but there are also disadvantages. Turkey cannot be called an objective mediator in the Armenian-Azerbaijani normalization since it unequivocally stands on Azerbaijan’s side. That is why, of course, you need to understand that Turkey will never be an honest judge and also understand that in any case it will be present in the region. There is no escape from this, and its opinion will have to be taken into account,” the political scientist said.