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Turkey’s position is not constructive, but destructive in terms of the normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations, said Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian in a televised interview with Russia Today.
He pointed to the fact that Turkey returned nearly to the same preconditions it put forward at the start of the rapprochement process, as a result of which normalizing Armenia-Turkey relations reached an impasse.
“You ask, what preconditions? First is the attempt to link the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia-Turkey relations. Mediating countries in the issue of normalizing Armenia-Turkey relations have repeatedly made statements that Turkey’s wish to link these two processes is not appropriate.
“The Turkish side, however, pretends not to notice, not to hear what the international community is saying,” said the Armenian foreign minister.
According to him, the second example of Turkey’s non-compliance is the issue of the Armenian Genocide.
“Before the beginning of the process, we noted that recognition of the Genocide by Turkey is not a precondition for normalizing relations, despite the fact that for 95 years, Turkey has adopted a policy of denying the Armenian Genocide. But this should be a precondition for neither Armenia nor Turkey. We also noted that Armenia will never cast doubt on the fact of the Genocide, nor the importance of its international recognition. However, Turkey, unfortunately, has returned to the language of preconditions, thereby taking on a destructive position,” concluded Nalbandian.