It will be possible to develop relations only when Turkey is ready to shake Armenia's extended hand, Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said at the joint press-conference with Foreign Minister of Latvia Edgars Rinkevics in Yerevan, 12 December, when commenting on the challenge of Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to establish relations with neighbors.
He said that Armenia's foreign policy is directed at establishment of partnership with all the countries. "But partnership may be developed only with the countries which are for that. Is it possible to develop partnership with a country which has not established and refuses to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia, with the country which shut down the border to Armenia and has been conducting an aggressive and harsh policy of the Armenian genocide denial? And, in general, the country which displays hostility to all the issues regarding Armenia and the Armenian people", - Nalbandian said.
He also added that when Turkey is ready to face its own history and move forward implementing the taken duties, in that case we will be able to return to this issue.
The minister recalled that international structures say that the ball is in the Turkish side and the Turks should be ready to listen to what the international structures say.
To note, Turkey wants to see Armenia in various projects in the South Caucasus. Foreign Minister of that country Mevlut Cavusoglu made such statement at the Fourth Trilateral Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia and the Republic of Turkey in Kars on 10 December 2014. According to Turkish media outlets, the Turkish minister said that Yerevan 'has to settle its problems with the neighbors' to get involved in the given projects. Cavusoglu said Turkey wants sooner resolution of the Karabakh conflict, which the minister sees in transfer of the liberated territories of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic to Azerbaijan. Furthermore, Cavusoglu is sure that transfer of the NKR territories is in favor of Armenia, first of all.