Armenia Security Council Chief: We Need to Normalize Relations with Turkey

• 09.24.2021, 13:59
•  Region,  World,  Armenia,  NKR

Mediamax.am

Both in the pre-election period and after the elections, we have talked about opening an era of establishment of peace, ensuring peace and stability in the whole region, and within the framework of that logic, we need to also normalize relations with Turkey; that normalization needs to be gradual. The secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan, on Friday told this to reporters at the government building—and referring to the Turkish president’s statement that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had conveyed—through the PM of Georgia—a proposal to meet with him, News.am reports.

"We are convinced that one of the opportunities for the normalization of those relations is to have a dialogue at the highest level. We have stated at various political levels that Armenia is ready to normalize relations with Turkey, and those statements and political steps have been taken within the framework of its logic," said the secretary of the Security Council of Armenia.

As for the status issue, the only and important platform for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group. And there was a statement by all the [three] co-chairs [of the OSCE Minsk Group] that the talks should be resumed within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. And an important issue—the issue of [Artsakh’s] status—should be discussed within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. The Nagorno-Karabakh issue is not settled, and this issue is waiting for its solution, and we see that solution within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, and we believe that we will discuss the status [issue] within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, and such statements by Azerbaijan are incomprehensible."

And in response to a reporter's remark that the Turkish side is talking about preconditions, and when asked what preconditions the Armenian side intends to meet in order to start a dialogue with Turkey, Armen Grigoryan noted: "The Armenian side has repeatedly stated—even before us, during the previous authorities—that relations with Turkey should be normalized without preconditions because when there are preconditions, it is difficult to move forward on any issue. And we hope that there will be normalization of relations without preconditions. All the existing issues can be discussed in the future, but it will be very difficult to start relations with preconditions.”