Presidential administration: Turkey’s position on Armenia clear

By  Trend

Turkey’s position on Armenia is clear, the Turkish presidential administration told Trend on Nov. 2.

“The normalization of relations without the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories is out of the question,” the administration said.

“As before, Turkey will support Azerbaijan and will also keep the issue of resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the agenda,” the administration added.

"If Armenia wants to normalize relations with Turkey, then it must immediately withdraw its armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories," the Turkish presidential administration said.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

The administration also said that Armenia must also renounce claims on 1915 events against Turkey.

"Despite all Turkey’s appeals to consider the archive files and create a joint commission to investigate the 1915 events, Armenia has not yet taken any steps in this direction," the administration said.

The administration stressed that Armenia’s refusal from Turkey’s proposal to consider the archive files and create a joint commission testifies that there was no "Armenian genocide" in the history of Turkey.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, allegedly carried out "genocide" against the Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915.