President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev answered the question of an expert at the International Crisis Group Nigar Goksel about the restoration of Turkey-Armenia relations, speaking at the the "New vision for South Caucasus: Post-conflict development and cooperation" international conference, which was held at ADA University.
"We see some signs, we hear some low voices in the Armenian establishment about reconsidering their policy towards Turkey. Even during the conflict on several occasions I was talking about that, saying that it is absolutely unacceptable and strange that such a small, impoverished and weak country as Armenia has territorial claims to such a great and powerful country as Turkey. There are so much ideological dogmas and turkophobia has become their national policy, that they have even lost their sense of reality," Ilham Aliyev explained.
The head of state noted that the Turkish government is planning the steps in a very constructive way, but of course, they need an adequate response from the Armenian side. The President explained that Yerevan should abandon its territorial claims to Turkey, excluding them from the Constitution, and stop exploiting the so-called topic. "genocide" and stop resorting to fake stories.
"Today we are discussing the unblocking of communication channels, in particular, the Zangezur corridor. The Zangezur corridor cannot be unblocked without Turkish agreement and participation... If Armenia wants to put an end to difficulties with communications, if they want to get the opportunity to become a transit country, it's only Turkey which can provide that. As far as I know, the Turkish government is ready. Again, the ball is now on the Armenian side," the Azerbaijani leader stressed.
According to him, Armenia needs good doctors to cure it from poison coming from the diaspora, which sits in very quiet and nice places in southern France, California, Krasnodar Territory, in some other capitals. "The Diaspora wants the Armenians in Karabakh and Armenia to be their hostages and tools for them to pursue some ambitious and chauvinistic ideas. The Armenian society needs to destroy the iron curtain behind which it lives under the influence of poisonous ideas. We are ready to help them with that," the Azerbaijani leader concluded.
