“It requires peaceful intentions from Armenia to resolve the Karabakh conflict. This is the main condition for a settlement. Without this, all attempts by international organizations to achieve progress in resolving the Karabakh problem will be futile,” member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Parliament), Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on Foreign Relations and member of the ruling Justice and Development Party Murat Mercan stated in an interview with Day.az agency.

Referring to the Armenia-Turkey border opening, Mercan stressed Turkey’s stance on the matter voiced by the president, prime minister, speaker of the parliament and foreign minister remains unchanged. “Our position is clear enough. Turkey is not going to consider border opening with Armenia until Karabakh conflict resolution sees progress and Azerbaijan’s occupied lands are freed from occupation. Speculations on this subject appear in the Armenian press from time to time. Turkey has made no changes to this condition,” he said.

According to Mercan, the process of restoring the Armenian-Turkish relations, known as "football diplomacy", did not stay in the history. “Everything depends on Armenia’s implementation of conditions set by Turkey. If these conditions are fulfilled, Turkey will take up the issue of ratification of the Armenian-Turkish protocols once again. First and foremost, it concerns a condition of liberation of Azerbaijan’s occupied territories,” he noted.

The MP said Turkey will go ahead with the initiative to conclude a security pact in the South Caucasus.  “Turkey is interested in sustainable peace and confidence in the South Caucasus. The recent expansion of the Turkish-Russian relations creates a good platform to establish peace in the region. I am sure that Turkey will continue to pursue a policy in this direction,” Mercan noted.