Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on Thursday urged Armenia to “reconsider its position,” citing what he called the “new opportunities” created in the region since the 2020 War and touted the so-called “Shushi Agreement,” which was signed in June by Turkish and Azerbaijani presidents when they visited occupied Shushi.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, traveled to occupied Shushi in June and signed an alliance agreement that has become known as the “Shushi Protocol,” which among other provisions contains a security clause that The agreement also contains a security clause mandating that “In the event of a third state’s threat to the independence or territorial integrity of any of the parties, the parties will provide the necessary assistance to each other.”

Speaking about relations with Azerbaijan, Çavuşoglu stressed that thanks to the “Shushi Protocol,” relations between the two countries have reached a qualitatively new level of strategic cooperation. “The fate of Turkey and Azerbaijan’s future is closely linked,” he said on Thursday, according to the Turkish TRT news agency.

He added that the following the 44-day war, there are new opportunities in the South Caucasus that can pave the way for long-term peace and stability in the region.

“Armenia should use these opportunity to reconsider its positions,” said Cavusoglu, who also discussed the upcoming talks between the Turkish and Armenian special envoys on normalization of relation slated to take place on February 24 in Vienna.

“Azerbaijan also favors long-term peace with Armenia,” said Cavusoglu. “We are not naive, but at the same time, we realize the need for decisive steps,” said Cavusoglu.

“We must work on the development of the region, implementing important programs. To do that, all countries must understand each other, must participate in the process. No one should be left behind, including Armenia,” added Cavusoglu.

“We [Armenia government] are regularly assessing the security environment around us and are taking actions connected with it. Some of these steps are being publicized, and some are not. But we are aware of every process that is taking place in the region, and when necessary, we respond in different ways,” Armenia’s National Security chief Armen Grigoryan told reporters on Thursday when asked about the approval by both the Turkish and Azerbaijani parliaments of the “Shushi Protocols.”