Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who is in the USA, met with Turkish citizens at the Turkish Embassy in Washington on January 19.
Speaking about creating tripartite and quadrilateral mechanisms in the context of the so-called “East-West Middle Corridor” with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia, he said: “I hope Armenia will also be involved in the process. In other words, he will take sincere steps on the way to peace. Unfortunately, we have seen a setback in the recent negotiations. Today Blinken said that Pashinyan is sincere, but we want to see it not with words, but with actions.”
Referring to the so-called Armenian-Turkish settlement process, Çavuşoğlu emphasized again that “Turkey and Azerbaijan are sincere in the matter of settlement.”
Since the third Artsakh war, Turkey has always emphasized that the Armenian-Turkish settlement is proceeding in agreement with Azerbaijan. It is interesting what exactly Çavuşoğlu qualifies as regression. Are there agreements and preconditions that the Armenian de facto side does not fulfill, or is it about the non-satisfaction with Azerbaijan’s demands regarding the closure of the Berdzor Corridor? During the last month, the Turkish side made statements supporting Azerbaijan, demanding to stop “eco-terror” and “illegal exploitation of Azerbaijani mines”.
Let’s remind you that RA de-facto Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan announced yesterday that he received an invitation from the Turkish Foreign Ministry to participate in the Antalya Diplomatic Forum and, according to everything, he will accept the invitation. According to him, meetings and discussions are supposed to take place, and his departure is very important for continuing the dialogue and achieving substantive results. Mirzoyan also participated in the diplomatic forum last year.
Judging by the intense nature of the statements made by the Turkish side, it can be assumed that this time, within the framework of the forum, some pressure may be exerted on the de facto Armenian side to speed up the process.
On the agenda of the Armenian-Turkish negotiations recently was the start of direct air cargo transportation and the opening of the land border for citizens of third countries. It should be noted that from January 1, 2023, direct air cargo transportation between Armenia and Turkey was resumed.
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