Turkey looking for ‘creative ideas’ to develop ties with Armenia: FM Davutoğlu

BERN – Anadolu Agency

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is greeted by his Swiss counterpart Didier Burkhalter before a meeting in Bern, Oct. 10. AA photo

Turkey is looking for “creative ideas” to develop relations with Armenia, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said today, adding that Ankara was giving a lot of importance to the normalization of ties.

Coincidentally speaking in Switzerland where both countries signed a landmark protocol four years ago to the day, Davutoğlu said Turkey would increase efforts on the issue in the coming months.

“We made serious efforts to put the protocol into effect four years ago. However, it was not possible to implement it because of the decision of the Armenian Constitutional Court,” Davutoğlu said during a joint press conference in Bern with his Swiss counterpart, Didier Burkhalter.

He was referring to the Armenian top court’s decision to mandate that the protocol agreement not contradict Yerevan’s efforts to have the mass killings of Ottoman Armenians in 1915 recognized as genocide.

“Now we are looking to develop it and advance with creative ideas and new ways of thinking. We will increase our works in the coming period. When relations between Turkey and Armenia are normalized, most of the issues between Azerbaijan and Armenia will also be within the framework of a solution,” Davutoğlu said.

The 2009 protocol aimed to boost ties between Ankara and Yerevan with a series of measures, including the opening of the countries’ border, a move that Azerbaijan has repeatedly said must not happen until there is an agreement on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.