They announced no concrete agreements after the meeting that came amid neighboring Iran’s ongoing conflict with Israel.
“During the meeting, President Erdogan emphasized the significance of the consensus reached in the ongoing peace negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, given the current circumstances, and added that Turkiye will continue to provide all kinds of support to the efforts aimed at the region's development with a ‘win-win’ understanding,” read a statement released by the Turkish Presidency.
“The meeting also covered potential steps to be taken within the framework of the normalization process between Turkiye and Armenia,” it said without elaborating.
According to the official Armenian readout of the talks, Pashinian “stressed Armenia’s commitment to continuing the policy of normalizing relations with its neighbors.” The two leaders discussed “the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process” and Yerevan’s Crossroads of Peace project that calls for conventional transport links between the two South Caucasus states.
Azerbaijan has dismissed the project, demanding that Armenia open instead an extraterritorial land corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave passing through Syunik, the only Armenian region bordering Iran. Erdogan has repeatedly backed this demand rejected by Yerevan until now. He has also made clear that the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations is contingent on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal acceptable to Baku.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has implicitly threatened to open such a corridor by force, prompting stern warnings from Iran. The Islamic Republic has said that it will not allow any “encroachments” on its border with Armenia.
Armenian opposition leaders and pundits fear that Azerbaijan as well as Turkey could take advantage of a possible weakening or destabilization of Iran to attack Syunik. Pashinian dismissed such warnings as “provocative” and “unfounded” on Wednesday.
Pashinian's domestic critics in turn say that his far-reaching concessions to Baku and Ankara only add to security threats facing Armenia. They have expressed concern over his trip to Turkey, saying that it could lead to more such concessions.
The official statements on Erdogan’s talks with Pashinian made only an indirect mention of the Iranian-Israeli conflict. Erdogan’s office cited him as saying that Ankara is “continuing its engagements with other leaders to avert the risks posed by the spiral of violence triggered by Israel’s attacks on Iran.”
“The interlocutors also touched upon regional events and possible directions of bilateral cooperation in that context,” Pashinian’s press service said for its part.