When Ankara made an announcement about the normalization of relations with Armenia and sent positive signals, Armenia responded to those positive signals; overall, there is still no agenda, it’s mainly about sitting at the table, understanding the stances of the sides and understanding how to normalize the relations. This is what Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan said in an interview aired on Armenian Public Television, touching upon the upcoming Armenian-Turkish negotiations.
“We see that there are such opportunities in the region, for instance, the possible opening of the Kars-Gyumri railway which will create big opportunities for Armenia and Turkey and will help make Armenia and Turkey economically dependent,” Grigoryan stated.
Asked why is it that the Turkish side constantly says what has to happen and Armenia does whatever the Turkish side says, Grigoryan noted the following: “The Turkish side isn’t saying what has to happen. It makes public statements, and we respond to almost all of them. Currently, we believe the important thing is to sit at the table and discuss the issues. We have yet to sit at the table and understand what Turkey is referring to and what Armenia is referring to.”
A few days ago, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu declared that Armenia and Turkey will appoint special envoys to discuss the steps aimed at normalizing their relations. Turkey will be represented by Serdar Kilic, who served as Turkey’s Ambassador to the United States for 7 years and served as Secretary General of the National Security Council of Turkey before that. Armenia’s special envoy will be Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan, who held the position of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for a few months after shift of power and then chaired the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations in the seventh convocation of the National Assembly. In 2017, Rubinyan was in Turkey for a few months and, as he declared from the podium in parliament on August 3, conducted research.