Yerevan chided Ankara for its continued insistence to coordinate the Armenia-Turkey normalization process with Azerbaijan, saying that such statements undermine efforts to achieve results in the effort.

Armenia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan spoke to Armenpress on Friday about the normalization process, specifically comments made by Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who insisted last week that the next meeting between the Turkish and Armenian special envoys be held in either country and not in a third country as has been the case.

The Turkish and Armenian special envoys, Serdar Kilic and Ruben Rubinyan, have met twice, once in Moscow and the other in Vienna. Cavusoglu voiced the belief that the talks would be more substantive if the envoys were to meet in either Turkey and Armenia.

“During previous attempts of normalization meetings took place in Armenia and Turkey on the levels of both negotiators and even presidents, but, as you know, they didn’t lead to results,” Hunanyan told Armenpress.

“What matters is the political will to reach normalization and readiness to take clear, substantive steps. We [Yerevan] are displaying both and we expect the same from Turkey. If there is the will, the location of the meetings will become simply a technical matter,” added Hunanyan.

The spokesperson said that by proposing to hold the talks in either Turkey or Armenia, official Ankara is demonstrating that the process is entirely bi-lateral and mediation from a third party is not needed.

By this logic, Hunanyan explained, “it would be reasonable not to hear weekly statements from Turkey’s representatives that they are advancing the process in coordination with Azerbaijan.”

He also touched on Cavusoglu’s comments about the need for Yerevan to take “courageous” steps in the normalization process.

“The Armenian side fully concurs with the need for taking ‘courageous’ steps. On numerous occasions we have shown readiness to move forward, including with the participation of our Foreign Minister in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum and the lifting of the economic embargo. The restoration of flights between Armenia and Turkey was also an important bilateral step,” Hunanyan told Armenpress.

“We are convinced that the only path for moving forward implies continuous, clear steps. For example, we offered the Turkish side, for the first phase, to open the land border for persons holding diplomatic passports, however the Turkish side continues to delay this process. We believe that this would be a small but substantive, most importantly logical step. We are hopeful that it will be possible to achieve results in this issue,” concluded Hunanyan.