Armenia Should Grasp the Hand Extended by Aliyev and Erdogan, Says Akara

Armenia should grasp the hand of peace extended to it by Ilham Aliyev and our president. This was stated by Turkey's Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar in an interview with "Milliyet."

“Under the influence of external forces, they have fallen into the arms of dreams, but that is not a rational approach. We want Armenia to take advantage of the opportunity presented,” said Hulusi Akar.

The minister noted that the "Zangezur corridor" and the railways and highways passing through it are very valuable for the economic, social life, and security of the region. He also added that with Azerbaijan, they continue to remain one fist and one heart.

Earlier, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated that an opportunity has been created to establish peace and stability in the South Caucasus following the Nagorno-Karabakh war.

Yerevan and Ankara announced in December 2021 that they were ready to take concrete steps towards normalizing relations, and both sides appointed special representatives: Ankara appointed former ambassador to Washington Serdar Kilic, while Armenia appointed Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Ruben Rubinyan.

Later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the parties agreed to continue full normalization negotiations without preconditions.

Within the framework of the Armenia-Turkey normalization process, the first meeting of the special representatives of the two countries took place on January 14, 2022, in Moscow, with three others occurring on February 24, May 3, and July 1 in Vienna. Meanwhile, on October 6, 2022, a meeting took place in Prague between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.