Turkey and Russia could work together on tackling problems in the South Caucasus, Russian political scientist Alexey Vlasov said on Thursday.
Russian-Turkish mediation in the region would be very useful, Vlasov, who is head of Moscow State University's analytical centre on post-Soviet states, said in an interview with 1news.az.
"All the signs are that Ankara and Moscow could join forces to settle the problems of the South Caucasus. Yet such statements remain only on paper. The Karabakh problem is a litmus test for this cooperation in practice," Vlasov said.
He did not play down the difficulties of settling the conflict. "Certainly, the Karabakh problem is a complicated issue but the return of the occupied Azerbaijani districts at the first stage could be the first step in the settlement of this problem. But, of course, this is not the final solution to the conflict; the parties must also work on the status of Karabakh, but at least this could be a first goodwill step."
Vlasov did not agree with the view of many analysts that Russia is not interested in settling the Karabakh conflict. Russia really wants peace between the parties and this is proven by the fact that President Dmitry Medvedev is personally interested in this settlement," he said. "If Russia were not interested in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, it would not have been so active in this process."
Vlasov did not predict a breakthrough at the forthcoming meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, however.
Statements from the Minsk Group mediators ahead of a meeting of the presidents are usually an indicator of what can be expected, Vlasov said. "This time I have not noticed any flurry of activity around the upcoming meetings, any news leaks or the like. So I do not think that the sides will attain any results at the meeting."
Asked about the point of the talks if results are not to be expected, Vlasov said there is no alternative to negotiations. "The mediators really want to preserve this space so that the negotiating chain between the countries does not break, as negotiations are always better than nothing. Therefore, the mediators will support the negotiation process".
1 news.az