YEREVAN (Sputnik) — Turkey's "extremely destructive' policies in the South Caucasus continue to isolate it from regional processes and normalizing ties with Armenia, Armenian Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan told Sputnik.
"Turkey behaves extremely destructively in the South Caucasus: it continues the blockade of Armenia, it continues to deny the obvious — the fact of Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire," Sargsyan said.
The minister accused Ankara of "retreating" from the 2009-2010 Zurich Protocols, a scrapped agreement aiming to normalize diplomatic relations and opening borders.
"And with its biased attitude toward the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkey continues to effectively isolate itself from the regional processes," Sargsyan pointed out.
Armenia insists on the recognition of the Armenian genocide by the international community. The Armenian genocide has already been recognized by Russia and numerous EU countries, as well as the European Parliament.
In early April, the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis between Armenia and Azerbaijan escalated and turned violent. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh Republic will inevitably return to Azerbaijan. On April 5, Baku and Yerevan signed a ceasefire in Moscow following Russian mediation.
