YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The position of the Turkish authorities doesn’t enable to seriously talk about the Armenian-Turkish relations, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said during the meeting with the Armenian community representatives in Iran, reports Armenpress.

“Turkey continues linking our bilateral relations with the Karabakh issue, in other words with the Armenia-Karabakh-Azerbaijan relations. Therefore, as long as the situation is such, unfortunately, we cannot have a base for optimism. Although we have stated and continue stating that we are ready to discuss these relations without preconditions, but this means that Turkey should not have preconditions, but today it pushes forward a precondition which is linked with the Karabakh issue”, the Armenian PM said.

In this context Pashinyan stated that the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is very important for the Armenian authorities. “But now a question can arise: you say that you are ready for these relations without preconditions, blame Turkey on having preconditions, refer to the Genocide, whether this is not a precondition? We say very clearly that the international recognition of the Genocide is not an issue of relations between Armenia and Turkey, it is a matter of fight against genocides and global security agenda, and pursuing the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide we consider as our contribution to the global security and the global fight against genocides. We will continue pursuing the recognition of the Armenian Genocide”, he said.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan