Turkey links normalization of relations with Armenia with the solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict

A meeting between Gul and Sarkassian in the Armenian capital Yerevan last September (French - Archive)

Turkish Prime Minister

linked the

normalization of relations with Armenia to an agreement between the latter and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region.

Speaking yesterday in the southern Hatay province, Erdogan said, commenting on statements in which Armenian President Serzh Sarkissian expressed his hope that the borders would be opened before a soccer match between the two countries after six months, "We can do the initial work (for an agreement with Armenia), but it certainly depends on resolving a conflict Nagorno Karabakh. "

Sarkissian had expressed his hope yesterday to open the borders before the match, but admitted that his optimism may be wrong.

And media reports talked about the possibility of signing an agreement that normalizes relations and paves the way for the opening of closed borders for 16 years, which raised the concerns of Azerbaijan, which wants its ally Turkey to link the progress of its relations with Armenia to the concessions of its recent progress in the conflict in the Nagorno Karabakh region, inhabited by Armenians and separated from it in the early 1990s the last century.

And Azerbaijan, which exports oil and gas, is important to Western countries that want to reduce their dependence on Russia.

Last week, during a visit to Ankara, US President Barack Obama urged Turkey and Armenia to progress on the road to mending the rift in relations poisoned by a legacy dating back to the last years of the Ottoman Empire.

Armenians say that 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed by the Ottomans between 1915 and 1917, which is strongly denied by Turkey, which was upset by an international campaign led by Sarkissian to get it to recognize what happened as a war of genocide.

However, the two countries began a reconciliation that culminated in the presence of Turkish President

the Armenian capital Yerevan last September, a football match between the two countries at an Armenian invitation, in a step that was the first of its kind, to which Turkey responded by inviting Sarkissian to attend the return match, which is part of the World Cup qualifiers. .