Armenia is in favor of establishing relations with Turkey and opening borders with no preconditions - Armenian President
YEREVAN, November 22, /ARKA. “The establishment of neighborly relations with all neighboring countries, including Turkey, has never been a moot point. We have always been in favor of establishing relations with Turkey and opening the borders with no preconditions,’ Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan said in an interview with SpecialEurasia.
According to Khachaturyan, the wording “no preconditions” is not a diplomatic evasion and also refers to the issue of the recognition of Genocide.
‘Unfortunately, I should highlight that throughout decades, Turkey has been the first to put forth preconditions for opening the borders and normalizing relations, in some sense serving the Azerbaijani agenda in the process of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem,’ the president said.
In the meantime, I find it important to note that in early 1990s and in 2008-2009, Armenia and Turkey had the opportunity to change radically and move toward normalization. Those opportunities weren’t used to the fullest, but today I find it more than important to look into the future instead of talking over past drawbacks or lost chances.
Nowadays, the special representatives of Armenia and Turkey meet periodically. Positive dynamics can also be seen in the fields of information and propaganda, and I hope that we can establish civilized, well-ordered and predictable neighborly relations. I profoundly believe that the solution of even the most complex issues is in development and democracy, which can’t exist with preconditions and exceptions. From this viewpoint, Armenia finds the establishment of civilized relations with Turkey, and all the neighbors to be an opportunity to reach democracy and development, and to solve complex issues, as I’ve already said.“.
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-
