Turkey fears Eastern Partnership might undermine BSEC activities

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Eastern Partnership program is a very new initiative and the Turkish government has not declared yet an official position, a Turkish expert said.



"The initiative is planned to strengthen the Union's policy towards the Eastern neighbors. As far as I know the Eastern Partnership keeps open the possibility of the participation of third parties (ex. Russia or Turkey) in terms of concrete projects or meetings," Aybars Gurgulu, foreign policy project assistant at Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), told PanARMENIAN.Net



"The only hesitation would be that this new initiative would undermine the activities of Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, but apparently the formats are totally different so Turkey would be supportive of this initiative. In addition if this new plan will help to the normalization of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, Turkey would be more than happy," he said.