YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, September 19, that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has offered to meet with him for talks on improving Turkish-Armenian relations.
Erdogan appeared to make such conditional talks on Armenia agreeing to open a transport corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave.
“It is bewildering that on the one hand Pashinyan is saying that the Armenian side is not discussing that [corridor] issue and on the other expressing a desire to meet with me,” he said. ”If he wants to meet with Tayyip Erdogan then clear steps will have to be taken.”
Erdogan said the offer was communicated to him by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili. The latter had met with Pashinyan in Tbilisi on September 8.
Pashinyan did not explicitly deny making such an offer when he reacted to Erdogan’s remarks through his spokeswoman, Mane Gevorgyan, on Monday.
“As of now, there have been no contacts between Armenian and Turkish officials, even though the Armenian government is prepared for such contacts,” Gevorgyan told Armenpress news agency. ”In the event of such productive work, Armenia will also be ready for meetings at a high and the highest level.”
