ARF/Dashnaktsutyun calls for suspension of Armenian-Turkish normalization
YEREVAN, February 28. /ARKA/. The Armenian-Turkish dialogue started to normalize relations between the two countries should be suspended, Ishkhan Saghatelyan, an Armenian MP from the opposition Hayastan alliance, said at the opening of the 34th general meeting of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation/Dashnaktsutyun party on Monday.
"Turkey continues to use the normalization of relations with Armenia to satisfy its and Azerbaijan's demands. Consequently, the process of so-called 'Armenian-Turkish reconciliation' should be suspended," Saghatelyan said.
Special representatives for the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey, respectively, the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan and Ambassador Serdar Kılıç held their second meeting today (February 24) in Vienna.
Armenia’s Foreign Ministry said the special representatives confirmed that the ultimate goal of the negotiations is to achieve full normalization between Armenia and Turkey, as agreed during their first meeting in Moscow on January 14.
Although Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Armenia’s independence from the former Soviet Union, the countries have no diplomatic ties and Turkey shut down their common border in 1993, in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan which was locked in a conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Turkey also refuses to recognize the Armenian genocide, committed during 1915-1923 when an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman government. The overwhelming majority of historians widely view the event as genocide.
In 2009, Ankara and Yerevan reached an agreement in Zurich to establish diplomatic relations and to open their joint border, but Turkey later said it could not ratify the deal until Armenia withdrew from Nagorno-Karabakh.
In 2020, Turkey strongly backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan gain control of a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh. -0-
