Monday, September 4 2023 16:57

ArmInfo. Yerevan does not link and does not want to link Armenian-Turkish relations with  Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, although it should be said that  Azerbaijan and Turkey do want to link this, and essentially push  forward issue continually. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan  stated to the Italian r La Repubblica, answering the question whether  the regulation of relations with Turkey is considered as a way to  control and limit Baku's actions through Ankara.

According to Pashinyan, generally, if we are talking about security,  any country can speak about security if they have regulated relations  with their immediate neighbors. And this is true not only for  countries that are not military superpowers, this applies to any case  as a formula.

"There have been many such examples in history. It seems that if any  country is stronger militarily, they may no longer think about  regulating their relations either with neighbors or in general. But  there are also ample examples in history, including current history,  that come to demonstrate that seeming military might does not mean  impregnabilityú Therefore, I think this is something that everyone  should be interested in, all countries in the region. It's another  thing that understandably there are interests that make it difficult  to attain that objective. That is exactly the difficulty in political  leadership to make things possible that sometimes seem impossible.  And this is very difficult, had not been it difficult, it would have  been solved long ago.  As for Armenia-Turkey relations, we consider  it important for us to regulate relations with Turkey. It's a very  important issue for Armenia and I have the impression based on the  results of my recent visit to Ankara and my contacts with the  president of Turkey that it is also very important for Turkey to  regulate its relations with Armenia. I believe that there are  opportunities here as well. There are also of course complexities,  and these complexities include the current state and quality of  relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan," he noted.

To the question of the journalist that, "You are considering the  Armenian-Turkish chapter separated from Nagorno Karabakh issue. But  there is another problem, the problem that Azerbaijan is controlling  certain territories of the Republic of Armenia. Is the normalization  of relations with Turkey a way to guarantee the territorial integrity  of Armenia against the pressures of Baku, and I am not talking about  Nagorno Karabakh here."

Pashinyan said:  "It's understandable that the relations between  Armenia and Turkey, the state of their regulation will essentially  diminish tensions in the South Caucasus region. Of course, all that  is interrelated. In general terms, what's the ideology we are trying  to implement, which is not easy. I am often asked if there are any  guarantees that this ideology will turn into reality.  Recently in  one of my interviews, when the journalist asked me, and I understand  that question, because it's a widespread perception not only beyond  our region, but also exactly in our region, in our country, because  we are accustomed to perceiving the global political map between East  and West, or West and Russia. So the journalist asked how we are  positioned being located between the West and Russia. I responded  that in reality it's a wrong impression that we are in the middle of  the West and Russia. We are in the middle of Georgia, Turkey, Iran  and Azerbaijan. And consequently, the security interests of our state  impose upon us to establish stable and regulated relations first and  foremost with our immediate neighbors, of course, not diminishing in  any way the role, impact and significance and importance of  geopolitical centers for this region and of course for our country as  well."