The US Department of State has allocated $150,000 to strengthen partnership between Armenia and the US. It is aimed at attracting grant recipients to lobby for the promotion of democratic values and cooperation with Turkey. The implementation of the initiative is controlled by the US Embassy in Yerevan.
Washington is slightly embarrassed by the Turkish Altai military plan developed in 2000. The purpose of the plan is supposed to affect the Armenian statehood so that Turkey could impose a new geopolitical agenda on Russia. Probably, mentioned grant is directed to the implementation of this plan.
Ankara and Baku can attempt to achieve the goals with the help of other levers of influence, e.g. through economic expansion. Moreover, Turkey has a working example of successful economic expansion of the whole region - Georgian Adjara.
The Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT), under the guise of the Turkish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (TIKA), continues to carry out alleged humanitarian projects in Adjara, and has already deployed a whole network of pro-Turkish NGOs in the Georgian territory. TIKA also oversees work with the local Islamic population, promotes the creation of madrassas (Islamic religious schools) and mosques.
Economy, culture, religion, education, civil society sector, political parties of Adjara - all this today is more dependent on Ankara than on Tbilisi. Armenia is being forced to this future - the rejection of the 1915 Genocide, the opening of borders, the admission of large Turkish capital to the Armenian market. We will see how it will lead to the formation of NGOs and entire parties that protect this very capital and other Turkish interests.
TIKA doesn't operate in Armenia, but this also doesn't prevent a number of Armenian officials and deputies from working with another subdivision of the Turkish MIT - the Turkish History Foundation "Tarih VakfÄ ±". Just imagine what will happen if bilateral diplomatic relations are established.
It is in the context of the expected Turkish economic expansion that both the next grants and some odious statements of the representatives of Yerevan and Ankara should be considered.
