The other day, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke again about the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, saying that they are consulting with Azerbaijan on this issue. “Many positive signals have been received from Armenia. We have said that we are ready to respond to the positive decisions of Yerevan. We are discussing with Baku what steps can be taken in that direction,” he said.
Aravot asked Turkologist Andranik Ispiryan about how months ago, the Armenian side was saying at the level of the head of state that “there are positive signals” from Turkey. As an expert, what did he conclude, in the end, what “positive signals” are we talking about? “Since I have always closely followed the process of Armenian-Turkish relations since 2008, I can state that especially after the 2020 war, it is obvious that there was nothing new in Cavusoglu’s words. The signals are that the Armenian side announced at the level of the Prime Minister and several other officials that it is ready to normalize relations with Turkey, and Turkey in its turn said that we are also ready, but… that is, Turkey did not actually give us any positive signal,” Andranik Ispiryan said first.
Then, he stressed, “Moreover, there were more positive signals in 2008, as at that time the documents on the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations were without preconditions. And today Turkey has a precondition – Azerbaijan … As Cavusoglu said, the Armenian-Turkish relations will be normalized when Armenia settles its issues with Azerbaijan. Although at that time the preconditions did not exist with documents (but in fact they did exist), at the moment Turkey is actually emphasizing the factor of Azerbaijan. In other words, there is no positive signal from Turkey at the moment. When relations with Armenia are conditioned by a third country, regardless of your relations with that country, it is not a positive signal.” The expert stressed that no Armenian leader has ever said that they are against the normalization of relations with Turkey. “But it was stressed that ‘without preconditions.’
Read also
There is nothing new or positive for a specialist who has followed the process. The new thing is that if at that time, Turkey did not go to the normalization of relations, reasoning that Armenia should give back one or two liberated regions to Azerbaijan, then now there is no such problem. Azerbaijan received not only the liberated territories, but also parts of Artsakh, from the borders of the Republic of Armenia. Moreover, we brought the Azeris to Gegharkunik and Syunik. After all this, Turkey does not have any preconditions, but we see that it is saying something new: we will decide together with Azerbaijan what to do in the issue of normalization of relations with Armenia. This has not happened before.”
We asked about if this is a new precondition by Turkey, then what is the status of Turkey’s well-known demand to renounce the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide? Andranik Ispiryan noted, “Turkey has already shown that it is not a reliable partner in international relations, and Russia knows about that. We must also know that. Turkey’s current statements are not credible because in the future they may say, give up the process of recognizing the genocide, or take Mount Ararat from your coat of arms, recognize the Treaty of Kars, give up this or that point of the constitution… that is, everything is not so easy yet. In any case, it is in Turkey’s interest to open the border with Armenia, and it was good that it kept it closed for a long time. It was actually in favor of Armenia.”
Luiza Sukiasyan
