Turkologist: Armenian-Turkish relations reached an impasse (video)
At this point, Turkey has a major problem which flared up in early November, Turkologist Gevorg Petrosyan said on November 22. Several members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), including at least 10 MPs, were arrested in November as police raided homes in Ankara and Kurdish-majority areas in eastern Turkey. “Several representatives of the party in the Turkish parliament were arrested in November [as part of a counter-terrorism investigation.] It means that the coup against Erdogan continues. Influential Kurdish leader Ahmet Turk was arrested on Monday, November 21. This implies that Erdogan will not stop destroying all the Kurdish forces. Also, armed operations against the (PKK) [a separatist group engaged in an insurgency against the government] continue. The problem is that Kurds are getting a greater opportunity to act in a well-organized way in the political domain. That is why, Erdogan began to fear them. I think there will be more arrests ahead of the planned constitutional referendum because if Erdogan succeeds in his plans, Turkey will switch from the parliamentary system to the presidential system. The Turkologist thinks that Erdogan is using violence to resolve short-term problems on his way. Speaking about the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, Gevorg Petrosyan said that the oral attacks between Serzh Sargsyan and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan show that the relations are still at a deadlock. “Serzh Sargsyan's latest statement did not contain positive elements, and what happened in Istanbul once again came to prove that after Zurich the Armenian-Armenian relations are at an impasse. A new process needs to be started but unfortunately neither of the sides, especially Turkey, demonstrates the necessary political will.”
