"I think only if internal developments in Turkey create a situation in which a Turkish government deems it in their interest to change its policy toward Armenia. I think this is unlikely, however, without a significant move on Armenia's part to ease the Karabakh conflict," Mr Cory Welt, Deputy Director and Fellow of Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net.

"Though the current peace process appears to have failed, I still have hope that a "package" deal can at some point be arranged by which Armenia returns most of the occupied territories outside Nagorno Karabakh in exchange for the normalization of relations with Turkey, postponing resolution of the political status of Nagorno Karabakh for a later date."

"It is ironic that Turkish-Armenian relations are held hostage to the Karabakh conflict more than to the issue of genocide recognition, but I believe that this is indeed the case. If genocide recognition within Turkey happens at all, it will only come after a normalization of relations with Armenia, not before," he said.

Full text of the interview