Armenia needs to withdraw troops from occupied Azerbaijani land before it can hope for normal relations with Turkey, a Baku-based official has said.
Novruz Mammadov, head of the foreign policy department at the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration, was commenting on remarks by Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.
Sargsyan said in an interview with the BBC Russian Service in London that Armenia hoped Turkey would establish normal relations without preconditions.
"To have closed borders in the 21st century is nonsense," Sargsyan said.
Turkey closed its land border with Armenia in solidarity with Azerbaijan in 1993, when the war over Karabakh was at its height.
Turkish leaders have said that protocols on the establishment of diplomatic relations with Armenia and on opening the land border, signed in 2009, cannot be ratified until Armenia withdraws troops from occupied Azerbaijani land, the preconditions to which Tigran Sargsyan was alluding.
Azerbaijani presidential official Novruz Mammadov told 1news.az that Armenia needed no preconditions to withdraw its troops from occupied Azerbaijani land.
"As for the values of the 21st century that are often discussed by the leaders of the aggressor country, it is nonsense in our century to apply a completely medieval manner of enhancing one’s territory through annexation of the internationally recognized land of a neighbouring state which is a UN member. It is absurd to devastate whole cities and villages and sell the looted materials second-hand.
"Their hope for legitimization of the illegal occupation by settling their unwise countrymen in the occupied lands and cruelly playing with their lives is also absurd. This nonsense can be listed endlessly, since it has become a part of the political culture of the Armenian state which does not understand that Turkey and Azerbaijan are so close that it is impossible to be at odds with one hand and hope for a friendly handshake with the other. And it is a pity that Armenia does not understand this simple truth and still has some fantastic hopes," Mammadov said.
The spat comes just over a week before a summit of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, to be mediated by Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev in Kazan. Mediators have urged the sides to prepare their people for peace and to take a major step towards a settlement.
Sargsyan's comments in full
Asked by the BBC Russian Service whether the return of the AK Party to power in Turkey would change relations between Yerevan and Ankara, Tigran Sargsyan said: "We hope that in Turkey the attitudes towards regulating Turkish-Armenian relations will be consistent, in particular, to the signed protocols, the essence of which is that two neighbouring countries intend to establish normal relations without any preconditions. The position of Armenia over the past 20 years has not changed. We are ready to establish diplomatic relations with Turkey without any preconditions. And the agreements that were reached with the Turkish side were based on this understanding of the situation. We would be glad if our Turkish colleagues also came to that conclusion. To have closed borders in the 21st century is nonsense."
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