Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, has touched upon the reasons for the non-opening of the Armenia-Turkey land border to this day, Armenpress reports.

At a meeting with members of the Armenian press in Istanbul, Simonyan commented on why the border is not being reopened yet.

“I obviously cannot say what to expect. At first, it was said that the border would not be opened if the Nagorno-Karabakh issue was not resolved. Then they announced that the Karabakh issue was resolved. After that, the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement was put forward. We negotiated that agreement. It was a complex and long process, but we reached an agreement on 17 points, we met for signing, we shook hands, but, still, the process was not completed,” Simonyan said.

Also, he reflected on the role of Azerbaijan in this process.

"Azerbaijan, through its lobbying and influence, I can say that at the moment it is hindering the process, because on the one hand it is negotiating with us, and on the other hand it is not allowing Turkey to negotiate with us. This is a strange situation. Turkey seems to have become a prisoner of these relations," said the speaker of the Armenian parliament.