“Armenia Wants Direct Communication with Turkey”: Sergey Lavrov
During a press conference following the “3+3” format meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Armenia has declined the mediation of Iran and Russia in the process of normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations.
According to Lavrov, Armenian officials have paused and wish to engage directly with their Turkish counterparts to determine what steps should be taken. He added that Russia and Iran have both contributed to the process of improving Armenian-Turkish relations.
In recent years, Armenian-Turkish relations have seen some progress. Negotiations have begun on the regulation of the border between the two countries. Armenia’s representative, Ruben Rubinyan, and Turkey’s Serdar Kılıç have met five times. Their most recent meeting was on July 30 of this year, where both parties reiterated their agreement to continue the normalization process without any preconditions.
As early as July 2022, Ruben Rubinyan mentioned that the success of the Armenian-Turkish negotiation process depends on Ankara’s political will and emphasized that Armenia has always been constructive.
The land border between Armenia and Turkey has been closed since 1993.