Turkologist: Any state can claim territories from Armenia because it does not meet any resistance

It is due to Iran and Russia that Azerbaijan and Turkey did not fully seize Armenia’s territories, Turkologist Varuzhan Geghamyan told Alpha News.

“The reason why, after 2020, Turkey and Azerbaijan did not attack and did not fully seize Vayots Dzor and Syunik regions is due to two factors: Iranian and Russian. The situation may not always be that way. What happened in September 2022 or 2023 may happen again in Iran. Iran may find itself in a difficult situation. There may be, for example, big demonstrations, insufficient resources, or, let’s imagine, the Iranian-Israeli war starts at some point.

It means that Iran’s opportunities will be limited. Therefore, we should not rely on the external factor only at this moment and say that Iran will protect us. It is clear that this can be changed at any moment. Here, of course, we should recall that after November 9, 2020, Azerbaijan conquered at least 300 square kilometers of territory in Vayots Dzor, Syunik, and Gegharkunik,” the Turkologist said.

He emphasized that these occupied territories are of strategic importance.

“They are not just territories, as the de facto prime minister presents. They are not mountainous areas. They are areas of strategic importance because, thanks to them, Azerbaijan is eliminating a very large zone, part of which coincides with the routes of possible corridors, in particular, in Jermuk and Ishkhanasar,” Varuzhan Geghamyan said.

In his words, any state can claim territories from Armenia because it does not meet any resistance.

“When the countries see that there is no resistance in case of seizing some territory from you, then they will make claims as Georgia is doing now. Two weeks ago, news came from the Georgian side that we need not only to demarcate the border of Armenia and Georgia—a process that has been going on slowly for 30 years—but to deal with delimitation again. In other words, the Georgians, with whom at first glance we seem to have no big problems, see that there is an opportunity to grab something, and they grab it. It is clear that those states that, to say the least, are not friendly towards us, and more precisely, are hostile towards us, will do the same,” Geghamyan noted․

They didn’t give it during the Soviet years; they said they would not give it because if we did, our narrowest part would become vulnerable, and there would be no point in keeping a state.
Now it is clear that after completing 4+4, i.e., ceding the so-called enclaves of Tavush and Ararat regions, the question of ceding another 10 villages, which has a ‘legal’ basis, will be put on the negotiation table. It is clear that after losing the resistance in Tavush and Ararat, it will be much more difficult to resist these new demands. The demands are neverending, and every concession leads to a severe limitation of the possibilities to resist other demands,” the Turkologist said.

Varuzhan Geghamyan sees only one way to get out of this hole: to change the current government to put an end to the seemingly endless chain of losses.”We, in the true sense of the word, today have the opportunity to stop those great losses. We are saying not only to save Tavush but to save our statehood in general, because the next losses will be much more painful. If this current government remains, we will definitely have a war. The only way to avoid it is to change the government,” he concluded.

According to the Turkologist, Turkey now wants to change the border with Armenia again, bringing forward the fact of changing the course of the Araks and Akhuryan rivers.

“In the summer of 2022, former Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the issue of re-demarcation of the Armenian-Turkish border is also on the agenda. I quote verbatim: ‘Our Armenian partners will also monitor this issue and will solve it quickly’.

Turkey definitely has it on the agenda at the moment. There are two circumstances here: the border between Armenia and Turkey was formed in 1921 on the basis of the Treaty of Kars, and it is no coincidence that the Turkish side is consistently saying that we must recognize that treaty again, even though it is de facto recognized. There is a need for re-demarcation along the course of the Akhuryan and Araks rivers because, in many places, the course of the river has changed, not in our favor. Turkey is using it as an excuse to change the border and capture more strategic territories from us,” he said.

According to Geghamyan, this time the target will be the regions of Armavir, Aragatsotn and Shirak.

“In those regions, as the de facto prime minister says, we will have painful losses. According to the Treaty of Kars, some areas along our border with the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic were supposed to be handed over to Nakhichevan to carry out border delimitation, which, fortunately, did not happen because the Soviet Armenian leaders did not take such a step. We are talking about 10 villages in the Ararat and Vayots Dzor regions. It mainly includes the village of Khachik and the areas along that line.