Turkish Journalist on Relations with Armenia and the Corridor Linking Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan

Today, December 5th, at the conference titled "Regional New Realities and the Crossroad of Peace" held in Yerevan, Emre Dinir, the director of the foreign news department of the Turkish TGRT news agency, also participated. NEWS.am spoke with him about establishing peace in the region and Turkey's role in this regard.

Mr. Dinir expressed gratitude to the Armenian government and all officials and stated that he is happy to be here. "I think that holding this conference is very important because the Armenian and Turkish peoples and officials are discussing ways to resolve issues. Problems need to be solved because we are neighbors. The 'corridor' is extremely important for Armenia and Turkey, and I believe for rapprochement with Azerbaijan as well. We should set aside the bad things, the bad words, and continue to normalize relations," he said.

When asked how he sees this as possible, given that Azerbaijan continues to speak about forcefully opening the so-called Zangezur corridor and Turkey supports Azerbaijan, referring to it as a brotherly state, he replied: "You know that Turkey and Azerbaijan are brotherly states, but both know that for peace to exist in the Caucasus in the future, we must resolve the issues with Armenia. This will provide advantages politically, economically, and even in tourism. The corridor is very important for all three countries from an economic advantage perspective, and all three countries understand that they need to solve the problems, normalize relations, and get closer to each other."

In response to the suggestion that he means the possible route connecting Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan when referring to the corridor, he answered, "Yes, but our president, Erdoğan, always says that this route will also include Armenia and Iran..."

The issue remains that Armenia continuously asserts that every part of this route must be under the sovereignty and control of the respective country, while Azerbaijan demands a transit corridor.

"Yes, I know that, but I am not a politician; I am a journalist. They understand each other; I am convinced of that. It seems that everything is very complicated, impossible, but nothing is impossible. The officials of Armenia and Azerbaijan are constantly discussing these issues. In some respects, progress is sometimes slow, but probably time is needed for that. I sincerely believe that eventually our countries will be good neighbors in the Caucasus," the journalist stated.