Mirzoyan: official Yerevan sees no problem with opening Armenian-Turkish border and is ready to finalize peace treaty with Azerbaijan
YEREVAN, October 19. /ARКА/. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan stated last week that official Yerevan sees no problem with opening the Armenian-Turkish border and establishing diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey.
"Our Turkish colleagues have also confirmed this. They are demonstrating a willingness to open the borders, resume rail links, conduct direct bilateral trade, and establish diplomatic relations. We expect significant progress in this area in the coming weeks and months. This is a matter of a few months at most," he said in an interview with DW.
Mirzoyan emphasized that a very constructive dialogue has been established with Turkey at various levels—with the participation of leaders, foreign ministers, special representatives, and technical teams.
"The dialogue has been and continues without any preconditions. At the same time, our Turkish colleagues emphasize that they cannot complete this process, open the borders, and establish diplomatic relations until Armenian-Azerbaijani relations are normalized.
"The peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan has already been initialed. There are no disagreements regarding its text," he noted, adding that Armenia is ready to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan "even tomorrow," the text of which has been agreed upon and initialed, but there is one condition.
"The Azerbaijani side, unfortunately, is setting preconditions for signing the peace treaty. We are against this position, we have counterarguments, but they claim there is a problem with our Constitution. This is their point of view, which is why they are calling on us to amend the Constitution. We cannot accept this condition," he stated.
Mirzoyan emphasized that the Armenian Constitution contains nothing that would imply territorial claims against Azerbaijan.
"The Constitution states that it is based on the Declaration of Independence. According to our legal status, only those elements of any normative act that are directly mentioned in the Constitution have legal force, and the Declaration of Independence is only mentioned, not quoted. "Therefore, the issue the Azerbaijani side is referring to simply does not exist," he explained.
"We do not agree with this condition, but discussions regarding amending or adopting a new Constitution of Armenia have been ongoing since 2018. This issue remains on the agenda; a commission has been established that is close to completing its work, and we will likely hold a referendum on this issue, although it will take place after the parliamentary elections next summer.
"I believe this reflects the actions we will take in the coming days and months," the Foreign Minister noted.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly stated that the Armenian Constitution contains no territorial claims against Azerbaijan or any other country, while the Azerbaijani Constitution does contain territorial claims against Armenia.-0-