Turkey is ready to take further steps in improving relations with Armenia and establishing a regional cooperation platform in the Caucasus as long as Yerevan is determined to continue the normalization process that started with the appointment of special envoys, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday.
Addressing press members on his way back from the Africa tour, which was cut short by a day due to the developments in Ukraine, Erdogan evaluated the ongoing normalization process with Armenia.
Erdogan said that he discussed the process with Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday. Noting that in addition to the appointment of special envoys to conduct diplomatic talks and the relaunch of the flights between the two countries, he also reiterated Turkey’s intentions to form a regional cooperation platform among Caucasus countries, including Armenia.
“As you know, I already said that we will respond in the same way to positive steps taken by Armenia. This region needs peace, stability and prosperity. With this understanding, we made a sincere effort to start a normalization process between our country and Armenia. President of Azerbaijan, my brother Ilham (Aliyev), also finds this useful. We are pleased with the will of Armenia to normalize with us,” the president said.
Expressing Turkey’s expectation from Armenia to maintain the positive approach, he said: “We also know that Armenia has some concrete expectations such as opening the borders and establishing diplomatic relations. If Armenia is determined to continue the process that has started with the special representatives, there will be no question of keeping the doors closed for us.”
Underlining that Turkey favors a regional cooperation platform and to overcome problems with Armenia through cooperation, Erdogan said: “In this sense, Azerbaijan-Armenia relations and Turkey-Armenia normalization process can progress by supporting each other. Likewise, our idea of regional cooperation will support and feed off these bilateral processes. Everyone needs to act constructively to make good use of this historic opportunity. We will continue to carry out all these processes in close coordination with Azerbaijan, as we have done so far.”
