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Erdogan is trying to change his image and to show that he is not so bad and that he seeks solution of all problems with Kurds and Armenians, Director of the ARF bureau's Hay Dat and political affairs office Giro Manoyan told reporters, commenting on Taraf newspaper’s report that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered to open the border with Armenia in September. 

Manoyan stressed that the Turkish authorities are trying to change their policy, violating the principles of Kemalism, but their approaches to the normalization of relations with Armenia have changed only formally.

According to head of Modus Vivendi Center Ara Papyan, Turkey’s steps ahead of the Armenian Genocide centenary will be mostly messages to the international community that Turkey wants to normalize relations with Armenia whose purpose will be to ease the international pressure.

“But in reality Turkey continues to link its relations with Armenia to Azerbaijan,” Papyan said, adding that Turkey managed to convince the international community that the closed border is the only problem in Armenian-Turkish relations and the opening of the border will solve all problems.

“In reality Russia is not interested in the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, while the West is interested in weakening Armenia’s and Russia’s influence in the region by means of opening the border,” Giro Manoyan noted.