Armenian FM responds to Turkish counterpart`s statement 

ArmInfo.  Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ararat Mirzoyan, responded to his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, who once again indicated that the normalization of Turkiye's relations with Armenia remains conditional on the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.

"If we normalize relations at this point, we will have taken away the  biggest reason for Armenia to sign a peace agreement with  Azerbaijan," Fidan said on Friday, according to the Turkish state  news agency Anadolu. "When Azerbaijan and Armenia sign a final peace  agreement, we will be ready to normalize relations with Armenia," the  Turkish Foreign Minister added.

In exclusive comments to Armenpress, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat  Mirzoyan said that while neither process is conditioned on the other,  normalization with Turkiye could actually have a positive impact on  normalization with Azerbaijan.

First of all, establishing diplomatic relations with Turkiye and  opening the border are indeed important for Armenia. Likewise,  further institutionalizing the peace established with Azerbaijan is  also important. Armenia is making sincere efforts in both directions.   However, neither of these components is conditioned on the other, and  if we were to insist on seeing a causal link between them, it might  turn out that the full normalization of relations with Turkiye could  have-not a negative but, on the contrary-a positive impact on the  normalization process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

As for the unblocking of transport infrastructure, at the peace  summit held in Washington on August 8, the main principles of this  process were agreed upon-territorial integrity, inviolability of  borders, sovereignty, jurisdiction, and reciprocity. Within this  framework, the TRIPP route will connect Azerbaijan with Nakhchivan,  Armenia with other countries, and-on a broader geographic  scale-different regions with one another through Armenia and  Azerbaijan. Armenia is actively and constructively striving to  implement this as soon as possible.