Armenia Plans to Normalize Relations with Turkey, Pashinyan Says
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Armenia sees opportunities to normalize relations with Turkey and will do everything to take advantage of them, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during an online press conference.
At the same time, according to him, the statements made by Turkey about the "Zangezur corridor" hinder the process of the Armenian-Turkish settlement, but this does not mean that Armenia will stop the dialogue with Turkey, RIA Novosti reported.
Baku insists on laying the so-called Zangezur corridor, which will connect Azerbaijan with the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic through the Syunik region of Armenia.
Azerbaijan's future plans include the connection of Zangilan, located in the region of Eastern Zangezur, with Western Zangezur, and then through Ordubad with Nakhichevan and Turkey. Yerevan does not agree with the idea of a transport corridor from the western regions of Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan through the territory of Armenia. In Armenia, they say that we can talk not about a corridor, but about a road.
There are no diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia, the border between the two countries has been closed since 1993 at the initiative of Ankara. Difficult relations between the countries are caused by a number of circumstances related, in particular, to Ankara's support for the Azerbaijani position on the Karabakh problem and Turkey's sharp reaction to the process of international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
On January 14, Moscow hosted the first meeting of special representatives for the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey - Deputy Chairman of the Armenian Parliament Ruben Rubinyan and former Turkish Ambassador to the United States Serdar Kilych. As the Russian Foreign Ministry reported, the parties during the talks showed their readiness to conduct a dialogue in a constructive, non-politicized manner. Two more meetings were held in Vienna.
