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The negotiations on Syria held between the Russian and Turkish presidents in Sochi most likely addressed, among other things, the issue of the Syrian Armenians’ security, turkologist Ruben Safrastyan told a news conference on Friday.

“The Armenian issue came out in an interesting way. On the one hand, given the Armenian prime minister’s post it is possible that before the deal struck with Turkey, the Armenian side had succeeded in reaching an agreement with Russia, and the Erdogan-Putin talks lasting about six hours also addressed the Armenian community’s security for instance in Armenian-populated Qamishli,” the expert said.

Safrastyan, who also heads the Institute of Oriental Studies, said when commenting on the agreements reached with Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said they had taken into account not only the issues of the Kurds, but also those of the Assyrians and Arabs, not mentioning the Armenians, but, according to the expert, the issue of Armenians may also have been raised during the talks.

"It should be assumed that Turkey has given certain assurances that there will be no encroachment on Armenians in the territories controlled by it,” Safrastyan said.

He also recalled that the Armenian issue has also been raised in the United States, where an Armenian Genocide resolution will be voted on in Congress next week.

“In terms of Armenia’s interests, an interesting thing has happened: two superpowers have touched upon the Armenian issue in a positive way. This is one of the unique phenomena of our history, which we must take into account,” Safrastyan said.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Pashinyan said the agreements reached in Sochi on Syria also referred to issues related to the security of the Armenian community in Syria which he had earlier discussed with Putin.