Although Turkey and Russia develop economic relations, they will always be regional rivals, according to Turkologist Artak Shakaryan.

“We should not forget about Turkey’s strengthening positions in Crimea, Ajaria, Abkhazia and Nakhijevan,” Shakaryan told reporters on May 12.

He also emphasized that Karabakh problem will be on the agenda of Russian President’s visit to Turkey.

“Turkey doesn’t conceal its wish to join the Karabakh talks, gradually deepening into process. Surely, Ankara will not succeed to become a co-chairing country in the OSCE Minsk Group, but it can get an observer status or launch a parallel process like its stability and security platform,” Shakaryan said.

Touching on normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, he said that the dialogue will be resumed no sooner than in 2014, due to parliamentary elections in both countries.

The expert did not rule out that Moscow will try to seize the initiative to organize Armenian-Turkish meetings.