Relations with Turkey should be normalized without preconditions – Security Council secretary

“Both in the pre-election period and after the elections, we talked about establishing peace in the whole region, opening the era of peace, and ensuring stability,” Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan told reporters after the government session.

“Under this logic, we must normalize relations with Turkey, that settlement must be gradual. We are convinced that one of the opportunities for the normalization of these relations is to have a dialogue at the highest level. As we have stated at various political levels that Armenia is ready to normalize relations with Turkey, such statements and political steps have been under that logic,” Grigoryan said.

He added that the normalization of relations with Turkey should be separated from the relations with Azerbaijan. As for the status of Artsakh, he said that the only possible platform for the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict is the OSCE Minsk Group. He considered Aliyev’s statement that Armenia should refrain from the status of Karabakh incomprehensible.

To the question of what conditions Armenia intends to meet in order to start the dialogue with Turkey, Grigoryan answered: “Armenian has stated many times, even before us, during the previous government, that relations with Turkey should be normalized without preconditions, because if there are preconditions, it is difficult to move forward. We hope that the normalization of relations will be without preconditions, there will be an opportunity to start a dialogue without them. All the existing issues are debatable in the future, but it will be very difficult to start relations with preconditions.”