Turkey’s prime minister says his country would be willing to assess requests for “a new page” in its relations with Armenia, AP reports.
Binali Yildirim’s comments Friday were in response to reports that Armenia’s new prime minister, Nikol Pashinian, had called for the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two neighbors without any preconditions.
Yildirim says “if Armenia abandons its hostile stance … if it wants to open a new page, we would look at the details and respond accordingly.”
“We do not want to be hostile to anybody, especially our neighbors. If such an approach is taken, we will naturally evaluate it in the interests of our country,” he said, adding that the government’s principle is “to increase friendships and diminish hostility.”
Armenia’s new Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on May 9 said his country is ready to establish diplomatic ties with Turkey “without preconditions.”
“Turkey is putting forward preconditions. This demand is illogical because it is illogical to put forward conditions related to a third country in order to establish relations with any country. We do not change our position and we are ready to establish relations without conditions. At the same time, we remain committed to international recognition of the Armenian genocide,” Pashinyan said at a press conference in Stepanarkert.
Armenia and Turkey signed two protocols on establishment on normalization of relations, which Armenia declared null and void in March 2018.
