Turks and Azerbaijanis Are Our Enemies, But the Question Is What We Will Do About This Enmity: Prime Minister

During a parliamentary session, Deputy Speaker Alen Simonyan asked Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan whether Turks are our enemies or not.

"It is not even a subject for discussion; yes, Turks, yes, Azerbaijanis are our enemies. They also consider us enemies. The question is elsewhere: fine, what are we going to do about this enmity? I say in the regions: as much as we consider them enemies, they consider us enemies just as much; the more they see us as enemies, the more we see them as enemies. The question is what we should do in this situation. To what extent will we escalate this enmity, what approach will we adopt?"

In this context, let’s answer the question of what this means: do they set a problem for themselves to eliminate us, and do we set such a problem for ourselves? Is this the issue? I think not; we should not formulate such a problem. But they should not formulate such a problem either. We cannot unilaterally decide that they are not enemies, nor can they unilaterally decide that we are not enemies.

The question is what we do next, how we manage that enmity, whether we place enmity within a certain framework or allow it to become unmanageable. More specific questions arise from this, meaning is our region a region of endless wars? We must answer this question ourselves. Today, there are states that are enemies, have territorial claims against each other, yet they have trade ties worth dozens of billions, tourists coming and going, official visits, and diplomatic relations," Pashinyan stated.