Unfortunately, Turkish authorities’ position does not allow for a serious discussion of relations, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan noted at his get-together with representatives of the Armenian community of Iran.

The PM stressed that Turkey constantly links establishment of relations with Armenia to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict.

“As long as the situation will be like this, there are no grounds for optimism, albeit we [Armenia] have repeatedly said that we are ready to discuss the matter of relations without [any] [pre]conditions,” Pashinyan added. “But this means that Turkey also should not have [pre]conditions.

“International recognition of the [Armenian] Genocide is extremely important to us. You may ask, ‘But you were speaking about the absence of [pre]conditions. Isn’t that a [pre]condition?’ [But] we are saying international recognition is not a matter of Armenia-Turkey relations, but a global security agenda; and that’s our contribution to international security and global fight against genocide. So, the work will continue in this direction.”