Turkey-Armenia border
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Tuesday urged Yerevan to stop using pressure from the Armenian Diaspora as an excuse for not moving forward with the normalization process with Turkey and its demands, which he reiterated was the recognition of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty that includes Artsakh.
Turkey’s top diplomat said that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has the mandate to advance the talks because he won last year’s elections and said that the Armenian leader should not be swayed by the Armenian Diaspora. Cavusoglu did not elaborate on when and where Yerevan has made such claims.
Cavusoglu said that normalization with Armenia remains conditional on whether Yerevan will accept Azerbaijan’s demands, which also include the opening of the so-called “Zangezur Corridor”—a scheme being advanced by Baku that calls for the creation of a land corridor through Armenia that will connect mainland Azerbaijan with Nakhichevan and ultimately Turkey.
Cavusoglu insisted that the creation of such a corridor is cemented in the November 9, 2020 agreement signed between the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. However, such a provision is not part of the agreement, which calls for the opening of transit routes between Armenia and Azerbaijan, for which a commission has been established.
“Peace in the South Caucasus can become a reality with a comprehensive peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan which we also support,” Cavusoglu told the Turkish TV channel Haber Global. “Azerbaijan made a proposal to Armenia to which Armenia did not respond positively for a long time.”
The latest effort to normalize relations involved the appointment of special envoys by Yerevan and Turkey earlier this year to manage the process, which both sides proclaimed would be negotiations without preconditions. Yet throughout the process, Turkey not only has linked the normalization to Armenia accepting Azerbaijan’s demands, but has also asserted that the process is being coordinated with Baku at all times.
Cavusoglu voiced these demands last month and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reinforced it by making it clear that Turkey will normalize relations with Armenia only “after problems with Azerbaijan are solved.” This was after the special envoys, Serdar Kilic and Ruben Rubinyan met in Vienna on July 1 and decided that the land border between the two countries will be opened to third country citizens and will kick off air cargo transport.
“Azerbaijan must fully establish its sovereignty on its territories and develop those regions,” Cavusoglu insisted, adding that Baku has been telling Armenians living in those territories that all their rights will be protected.
“Azerbaijan proposed a comprehensive peace treaty. What else can it do?” Cavusoglu added.
Official Yerevan, which has insisted on opening the border with Turkey and establishing diplomatic relations, has yet to publicly comment on the preconditions being set by Ankara.
