Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the Armavir branch of the Ararat cognac factory.
Reporters asked the prime minister whether or not he actually spoke to Turkish President Recep Erdogan, despite the fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied such news. The prime minister answered, “That never happened. The only form of contact I had that I have spoken about was when the Turkish foreign minister passed me in Brussels, greeted me, and left.”
The “Hurriyet” newspaper published information that Erdogan had called Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and appealed to him regarding the return of 16-year-old Turkish teenager Umut Ali Ozmen, who had crossed the Armenian border.
The prime minister, responding to the reporters’ observation that people are saying that the Turkish teenager, who crossed the Armenian border 2 months ago, has been held in Armenian prisons for 45 days and the Turkish president had called Pashinyan regarding this situation, said, “I am not preparing to hold secret discussions with any country’s president, especially not Turkey’s. We are not preparing to do anything in secret whatsoever. If any discussions are held, the public will know about that from us, not…”
When asked about how the situation at the border has been tense for the past few days and a civilian has been wounded, the prime minister said, “The border hasn’t been tense for only a few days, but instead for the past 30 years.”
Hripsime Jebejyan
