Rubinyan: Pashinyan-Erdogan meeting may take place soon

YEREVAN, September 29. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Turkish President Recep Erdogan may meet early next month, Ruben Rubinyan, deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament and Armenia’s special envoy for negotiations with Turkey, told Azatutyun Radio.

According to earlier reports, Pashinyan and Erdogan may meet in Prague on October 6 on the fringes of a European Political Community meeting.

Rubinyan’s latest meeting with Ankara's special representative for normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, Serdar Kılıç, took place in July, when an agreement was reached on opening borders for citizens of third countries and creating opportunities for direct air cargo transportation.

"Representatives of the relevant departments of the two countries were supposed to meet September 14 at the border to discuss the implementation of this political agreement. But on September 14 Azerbaijan attacked Armenia and the meeting was postponed at the request of the Turkish side," Rubinyan said.

He disagreed with allegations that this agreement has actually remained on paper, saying there is a political responsibility for its implementation.

He also rejected allegations that Armenia may accept a Turkish offer to mediate between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"In general, neutral parties can be mediators. I think no one can now call Turkey neutral in the context of Armenian-Azerbaijani opposition and Azerbaijan's invasion of Armenian territory," Rubinyan said.

Earlier, Erdogan said he may travel to the Czech Republic to attend a European Political Community meeting and ' presumably Pashinyan may also be there and perhaps we may have an opportunity to discuss all the issues there'.-0-