We Facilitate the Resolution of Existing Issues in Armenia-Turkey Relations, Lavrov

Russia is ready to contribute to the improvement of relations between Armenia and Turkey. This was announced by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a joint press conference following a meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan.

“We are doing everything we can to facilitate the resolution of existing issues in Armenia-Turkey relations. We actively contributed to the signing of the so-called Zurich Protocols, although we were cautious not to ascribe too much importance to them and to the calculations that they could be realized independently of the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Lavrov stated during the press conference.

According to the Russian Foreign Minister, despite the unfortunate fate of the Armenian-Turkish protocols, Moscow is ready to use its potential to settle Armenian-Turkish relations, but both sides must be interested.

“We see no grounds for assuming that anyone would start a war between these countries, but in any case, we are doing everything to establish peace and mutually beneficial cooperation here,” added the Russian Foreign Minister.

The process of normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations began in 2008 at the initiative of former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. On September 6, 2008, then Turkish President Abdullah Gul visited Yerevan for the first time at Sargsyan's invitation to jointly watch a football match between Armenia and Turkey's national teams. This led to a meeting between the presidents of the two countries in Yerevan, widely covered by the global press. This visit became known as “football diplomacy.” Sargsyan, in turn, visited Turkey on October 14, 2009, at Gul's invitation to watch the return match.

In October 2009, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey signed protocols in Zurich to establish diplomatic relations and develop bilateral relations, which were to be ratified by both countries' parliaments. However, on April 22, 2010, Sargsyan signed an order to suspend the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish protocols, stating that Turkey was not ready to continue the initiated process.

On March 1, 2018, Sargsyan annulled the protocols, noting that Armenia did everything possible to ensure that the issue of improving Armenian-Turkish relations would not be passed on to future generations, yet Ankara made no moves to ratify and implement the protocols.