Europe’s doors closed before Turkey: Vardan Voskanyan
Based on referendum results from 99.97% of polling stations 51.41% of voters said “yes” to the constitutional referendum held in Turkey on April 16. Anadolu news agency reports that number of “no” voters comprised 48.59%. Turkey’s largest cities, however, Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, voted “no”.
Vardan Voskanyan, head of Iranian Studies of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, told 168.am that pro-Erdogan powers in Turkey hardly succeeded to pass the Constitution, by which, according to Voskanyan Turkey goes to centralization, more restriction of democratic freedoms.
“It’s noteworthy, not only population of Turkey’s western border, but also most part of Kurdish regions said “no”. This means Kurdish population isn’t at all enthusiastic about such changes, and alongside with other issues in Turkey, in future we should anticipate certain developments in Kurdish regions as well, which immediately border with the Republic of Armenia and present interest to us,” the expert said, adding that the referendum will have negative implications.
“Negative implications in social moods, Turkey’s domestic policy, in the context of intra-ethnic situation, in particular, linked to Kurds, and economists claim that it’ll have a negative effect on Turkey’s economy,” he said.
According to the expert, Turkey showed that by such a system it has no chance to become a EU member,
“Formerly those chances weren’t so big, but especially after adoption of such constitution Turkey’s chances in the context of European integration reduced a few times, if not saying Europe’s doors were closed before Turkey. Turkey’s neighboring states are too anxious with the strengthening of Erdogan’s power, as during these years Erdogan’s regime managed to spoil relations through all possible means and political adoption, as a result of which we have zero neighbors with which Turkey has issues.”
V.Voskanyan stated that prior to constitutional change Turkey was pursuing hostile policy towards Armenia, and currently that hostile policy will proceed.
As for Turkey-Russia relations, he considers despite certain periods of flirt, those relations have never been of strategic importance and it’s very difficult to suppose how more powerful Erdogan will behave himself in relations with Russia, “I consider he’ll become bolder.”
By Razmik Martirosyan
