Talks underway to open corridor without using this word — Sergei Melkonian

If Armenia wants to negotiate with Turkey without mediators or with them, it will not achieve any results anyway, Sergei Melkonian, Research Fellow at APRI Armenia, told Alpha News, referring to the statement by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan that Armenian Turkish relations cannot be improved until Armenia has satisfied all the demands of Aliyev.

“This means that if Armenia wants to negotiate without mediators, or with one mediator, or even with three or four, it will not achieve any result. More than two years ago, Armenia and Turkey agreed that the border would be open to citizens of third countries, but there is still no progress on this issue. There are some meetings and announcements without any content or practical steps. At the same time, we see that Armenia actually accepts Turkey’s agenda, which involves Aliyev’s demands,” Melkonian said.

Referring to another statement by Erdogan that Ankara expects the signing of a peace agreement as soon as possible, with Azerbaijan’s military “achievements” being documented, the expert stressed that there have been no official statements on this issue from the Armenian side so far.

“This means that Armenia is ready to admit that this is a new reality. They say, yes, we continue to concede because Azerbaijan is strong. Moreover, there is no reaction from Armenia regarding the so-called ‘Western Azerbaijan’. But other states, including Iran, the United States, and Russia, are also following all this very closely. Speaking about the opening of the border and the entry and exit of citizens from third countries, they say that this allegedly means foreign diplomats.

But I do not think that diplomats will drive to Kars via Gyumri by car since there are flights between Yerevan and Turkey that they use. This means that first of all they are talking about the citizens of Azerbaijan and this is one of the preliminary steps for the opening of the Zangezur corridor. And what does Azerbaijan say? It says it is not interested in anything, it says it only needs the Zangezur corridor. And yes, this whole agenda is being created specifically for this corridor,” Melkonian concluded.