Ara Ayvazyan: We do not see positive steps from Ankara, but continuous demands

The former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, Ara Ayvazyan, does not believe that anything new will change after the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan and President Aliyev. “It is always good to have dialogue, but we have seen that after dialogue, the agreements reached are not maintained, and we have often witnessed that the situation has escalated,” he stated in a conversation with reporters, as reported by aysor.am.

Referring to the appointment of a special representative between Armenia and Turkey, the former minister recalled the famous saying from a classic film: “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”

“Naturally, there has always been a desire throughout the years to engage in dialogue without preconditions, which has had some progress, but for quite a long time, there has been no dialogue with Turkey. It is very important that our Foreign Ministry well understands what agenda they will pursue in the negotiations,” he said.

Ara Ayvazyan noted that the goals of both Ankara and Baku are well known. “I am concerned that the ‘3+2’ format may attempt to neutralize and overshadow the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair format,” the former minister indicated.

According to him, we do not see positive steps from Ankara, but rather continuous demands. “I am quite perplexed and have doubts about what purpose the ‘3+2’ format pursues,” he added.