Tuesday, January 21 2020 12:40

ArmInfo. The liquidation of Iranian general Kassem Soleimani, in my opinion, contained a warning not only to Iran, but also to Turkey. A similar opinion was expressed by ArmInfo Director of the Armenian Center for National Strategic  Studies Manvel Sargsyan.

"Just two weeks after the Suleimani's assassination, the attention of  the world was transferred to Libya.  And a number of experts saw in  the assassination of the Iranian general a warning not so much to  Tehran as to" hot heads "in other parts of the world. In particular,  in Turkey, which has become constant for the region and the world a  source of headache. The main problems for the US and the EU today are  not with Iran, but with Turkey, "he said.

The analyst suggested that the political meaning of the January 3  killing of Soleimani was correctly perceived in Ankara. As evidence  of what he considers the subsequent death of the Iranian general,  Recep Erdogan's refusal to implement the decision made by the Turkish  parliament on January 2 to send troops to help the Libyan government  recognized by the UN.

Sargsyan in this regard recalled that this decision of the Turkish  parliament was the reason for Donald Trump's appeal to Erdogan to  refrain from invading Libya. The EU expressed concern, Ankara's  decision was simultaneously condemned by Greece, Israel and Cyprus.

Thus, the time for Turkey's decision to intervene in internal  contradictions in Libya and support the Government of National Accord  in Tripoli, according to analysts, was not the most successful one.  And on January 3, after the demonstrative assassination of General  Soleimani, US President Trump announced that the United States would  not allow anyone to arbitrarily act in the region. And on January 8,  Russian President Putin went to Turkey, where on the same day he  issued a joint communique with Erdogan with the initiative of  declaring a truce in Libya on January 12. Then it became completely  clear that the Turkish president refused his programs in Libya.

According to  ACNSS Director, thus, for the second time in order to  curb the encroachments of Turkey, Vladimir Putin had to make  decisions. And in Erdogan's sudden obedience to this decision, there  is nothing strange in his opinion. Erdogan simply realized that there  would simply be no second warning. And for Putin, these agreements  paved the way for new diplomatic successes - as early as January 13,  the sides of the intra-Libyan confrontation and Turkish  representatives were in Moscow with the goal of signing an armistice  agreement.

"And, despite the refusal of the commander of the Libyan National  Army, Khalifa Haftar, to sign the agreement in Moscow, negotiations  continued in Berlin on January 19, but also unsuccessfully. However,  the very fact of such international interest in the events inside  Libya suggests that it was in Libya that they intertwined interests  of superpowers and internal actors of confrontation into a single  ball of contradictions.  In this light, it can be assumed that Ankara  clearly did not calculate to the end what they tried to aim at, "the  analyst summed up.