Azernews.Az

YEREVAN – Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian said Thursday that talks on normalizing his country’s relations with Turkey concluded with the signing of the 2009 reconciliation accords and no further negotiations are underway, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said.

According to Nalbandian, neither "silent diplomacy" nor "the second stage of Zurich" was in place, referring to the protocols signed by the two governments to establish diplomatic relations and reopen the sealed Turkey-Armenia border.

"Some politicians and media outlets are saying that, but I don’t know who this ‘silent diplomacy’ is addressed to," Nalbandian said in a speech at the Indian Council on Foreign Relations.

Turkey and Armenia have been at odds for decades and their shared border has been shut since 1993 due to Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani territory and Armenian claims on World War I-era "genocide". The accords, signed in Zurich in October 2009, require approval by both countries’ parliaments. But Turkish officials have assured Azerbaijan, Turkey’s ally, that the protocols will not be ratified until progress is made in resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh. In response, Yerevan suspended ratification of the deals this April.

Nalbandian said the only step that remains to be taken in the lengthy Turkish-Armenian normalization process is to ratify and enforce the reconciliation protocols without delays.

"Armenia will be ready to move forward when Turkey is ready to do so without pre-conditions," he added.