By Astghik Bedevian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus reiterated Ankara’s calls for a land corridor that would connect Azerbaijan to its Nakhichevan exclave as well as Turkey through Armenia.
Kurtulmus was reported to emphasize Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s “common stance on regional and global issues” during a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Sahiba Gafarova held in Geneva on October 14. He met with Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan there later in the day.
According to the official Turkish readout of the meeting with Gafarova, Kurtulmus said Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh, greatly facilitated by Turkish military support, changed “the balance in the region” and created a “great opportunity for the Turkic world.” He added that the two Turkic allies hope that the “Zangezur corridor will be opened to benefit Azerbaijan, Turkey and other peoples of the region.”
Azerbaijan has been demanding such an extraterritorial corridor ever since the 2020 war. Turkey has backed these demands, linking their fulfillment by Armenia to the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in July that an agreement on the corridor would be the “final step” in the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
The head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency, Ibrahim Kalin, echoed that statement during a subsequent visit to Baku. Kalin was present at Erdogan’s talks with Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan held in New York late last month.
