“Turkey recognized Armenia's independence before the collapse of the USSR.“
“I was Prime Minister at that time. Later Armenia occupied a part of Azerbaijan's territories and the borders with Armenia were closed,“the ninth president of Turkey Suleyman Demirel said.
“Everybody in Turkey wants normalization of the relations with Armenia. But an answer should be found to the question „Why were the borders closed?“ Have the factors that caused the closure of the borders been eliminated?”
If you say “The causes have not been eliminated, but these factors may be eliminated as time goes” then remember that we made promises to Azerbaijani state and people. We also made a promise in Azerbaijani parliament. If we do not keep our promise, the other side may take offence,“he said.
Demirel said he does not know how the officials will normalize the relations with Armenia.
“I do not know how the officials will make it. If they sign the protocol but do not ratify it in the parliament, the borders will remain closed. If they make manoeuvre saying that the protocols have been signed, the borders will still remain closed. Promise was made to the international community that the borders will be opened. The international community expects the promises to be fulfilled,” he said.
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