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The heat of the summer was not only determined by the temperature, but also by the political events. Several important events took place during the summer, including the Turkish troops entering Syria, Founder of Modus Vivendi Centre, political scientist Ara Papian said during a press conference.

“For years now, Turkey has been talking about this, yet showing a restrained behaviour, mainly being held down by Russia. However, Turkey managed to come up with some kind of a reconciliation with Russia and enter Syria,” he noted, adding that Turkey intends on establishing a security zone, which should include at least a part of Syria’s norther border allowing to control the free movement of Turkish weapons, ammunition and fighters through this area.

According to the political scientist, former Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu declared a policy of neo-Ottomanism few years ago, meaning the spread of Turkish policy towards the former Ottoman areas, which is being carried out.

As Ara Papian noted, this has both negative and positive effects.

“The negative effect is that once large Armenian community in Aleppo, Syria is disappearing. The positive is that getting involved in the Syrian war Turkey distracted its attention from the South Caucasus. If you’ve noticed, during the past month the situation on the Line of Contact has been relatively calm. There are a number of reasons for that, one being that Azerbaijan cannot expect Turkey’s full support, therefore it acts more restrained. I think that the situation will remain so for another month or so,” he said.

According to the political scientist, the situation on the Line of Contact will become clear within the framework of Russia-West and Russia-Azerbaijan relations. He noted that Russia’s main policy in the South Caucasus is having considerable influence over Azerbaijan. “We know that the only leverage Russia has on Azerbaijan is the Karabakh conflict”.

“Much of that will depend on the domestic situation in Armenia, its stability, most importantly the economic state, whether the economy of the country will develop or the deterioration will continue,” Papian added.