Oct 26 2021
Erdogan calls on Armenia to mend its relationship with Azerbaijan.
BY GEORGE MACKIE ON OCTOBER 26, 2021
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, said on Tuesday that if Armenia wants improved relations with Ankara, it should repair ties with its arch-foe Azerbaijan.
Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations, a closed border, and a long history of antagonism dating back to the Ottoman Turks’ murders of Armenians during World War I.
The sour relationship has lately deteriorated due to Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan, which fought Armenia for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory last year.
Erdogan laid forth requirements for Yerevan to improve relations with Ankara during a visit to Azerbaijan on Tuesday.
“There will be no hurdles to the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia if Armenia displays genuine goodwill toward Azerbaijan,” Erdogan added.
After witnessing the opening of a newly-built airport in Azerbaijan’s Fizuli area, which was reclaimed during the six-week conflict last year, he told a news conference, “Turkey will reciprocate to Armenia’s steps aimed at building permanent peace in the region.”
More than 6,500 people were killed in the flare-up, which concluded in November with a Russian-brokered truce that saw Yerevan lose large swaths of contested land it had controlled for decades.
The fighting sparked fears that Russia and Turkey will be pushed into the conflict to directly defend their allies, putting Moscow and Ankara on opposite sides not just in Syria and Libya, but also in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkic-speaking Erdogan sees Azerbaijan’s military victory over Armenia as a significant geopolitical achievement as Ankara attempts to consolidate its dominance in the post-Soviet Caucasus.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated in September that Yerevan was willing to have talks with Turkey to heal relations.
