Armenians negative on possible Turkish-Georgian-Azerbaijan alliance

The Armenians has reacted negatively to the idea of the governor of the Turkish province of Ardagan on the possible alliance of three countries: Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. MP Ara Simonian thinks that Turkey is constantly seeking to increase its role in the South Caucasus. According to Simonian, Turkey desperately wants to play a decisive role in the solution of the Karabakh conflict, but there is no prospect for these Turkish hopes as the OSCE Minsk Group is busy working on the Karabakh issue. Simonian also believes that Ankara is trying to enter the region with the assistance of Georgia. Director of the Oriental Studies Institute of Armenia, Ruben Saprastian evaluated the initiative to create the above mentioned alliance and thinks that the idea of uniting these three countries was frustrated by the war in South Ossetia. Therefore Turkey started to try to normalise relations with Armenia. Now however it seems Turkey is trying to reanimate its plans in the South Caucasus with attempts to isolate Armenia and Russia. Saprastian thinks that Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Baku-Erzerum gas pipeline and construction of the Karsi-Tbilisi railway are the bases for the possible alliance and that even three years ago Turkey wanted to deploy its military together with Azeri and Georgians alongside the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline for protection. However US did not agree with this, stating that if necessary NATO could protect the pipeline. Another MP Armen Martirosian does not consider the possible creation of such an alliance as serious – he commented the most they could achieve would be taking decisions on some ecological problems.