Is Turkey demanding renunciation of Ararat and recognition of the Genocide in exchange for opening borders? Narek Karapetyan to Khandanyan

The Civil Contract faction has nominated Sargis Khandanyan for the position of Chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Relations.

Narek Karapetyan, Leader of the “Strong Armenia” faction, addressed him with a question: “What preconditions has Turkey set for the Republic of Armenia in order to open the borders? Do these preconditions include the state renouncing efforts to advance recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and is there a demand to remove Mount Ararat from our system of national symbols, from the center of our coat of arms, that is, to remove it from all our symbols?”

Sargis Khandanyan, a pro-government MP, answered in the negative. He assured that no such demands had ever been made, and that the process of normalizing bilateral relations is proceeding without preconditions. At the same time, he repeated the statement made multiple times by the authorities that international recognition of the Genocide is not among the country’s foreignign-policy priorities.