Turkey Assures Russia That There Will Be No Aggression Against Armenians, Eastern Expert

The Armenian authorities have likely managed to reach an agreement regarding the fate of Syrian Armenians before the negotiations between Putin and Erdoğan in Sochi. This is presumably what Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan meant in his recent post.

Ruben Safrastyan, director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, stated this during today’s press conference. A document was signed during the negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Sochi on October 22, under which Russian military police and Syrian border service units will be deployed in the Syrian part of the Turkey-Syria border, outside the security zone declared by Turkey.

After those negotiations, the Armenian Prime Minister wrote on his Facebook page that the agreements reached in Sochi regarding Syria pertain to the security issues of Syrian Armenians.

According to Safrastyan, in the Syrian territories that will jointly be monitored by Russian and Turkish units, the Turks will not be able to carry out any aggressive actions against the Armenians living there. Furthermore, the city of Qamishli, which has a large Armenian community, has remained entirely outside the Turkish control zone.

“In an interview with Turkish media, Erdoğan commented on the agreements with Russia, stating that they have taken into account the issues of Kurds, Arabs, and Assyrians. Erdoğan did not mention the Armenians, but it can be inferred that the issue of the Armenian community was also on the agenda of the Russian-Turkish negotiations. And the Turks have assured the Russian side that there will be no aggression against the Armenians,” noted Safrastyan.

A small Armenian community remains in the area that forms Turkey's 'security zone,' which is the section of the Turkey-Syria border between Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn that Ankara considers a 'security zone.'

Safrastyan believes that there is quite an interesting trend emerging in recent days, where global powers are discussing the issues of Armenia and the Armenian people. At the moment when the issues of Syrian Armenians were being discussed during the Putin-Erdoğan negotiations in Sochi, the recognition of the Armenian Genocide was raised in the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. It is expected that the House will once again attempt to vote in favor of the resolution soon. Safrastyan believes that Armenia should benefit as much as possible from these trends.