Turkish, Armenian parliament speakers hold 'positive' talks in Ankara

By Diyar Guldogan

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye’s parliament speaker on Thursday said he had "positive" talks with his Armenian counterpart in the Turkish capital Ankara.

"It was a positive meeting. We wish that a lasting peace and stability will be realized in the South Caucasus. This has become much more important for our region, especially at this time," Mustafa Sentop told reporters.

Sentop's remarks came after he had a closed-door meeting with Armenia’s Alen Simonyan on the sidelines of the 61st General Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC).

"There is a normalization process between Türkiye and Armenia. There are special representatives. They are meeting. Our relevant institutions are in contact.

"Peace talks are also held between Azerbaijan and Armenia. These meetings are held at various levels. The important thing for us is to establish lasting peace and stability in our neighbors, especially in the South Caucasus," he added.

The countries of the region should solve the problems on the basis of a “sincere” dialogue among themselves, Sentop said.

"He (Simonyan) said that they are working for this normalization process in good faith and that they are working sincerely at the government and parliamentary level to develop this normalization process and to provide a permanent one (normalization) in the region and they will continue to work," he added.

About the inauguration of the "Nemesis Monument" in the Armenian capital Yerevan, Sentop said: "He (Simonyan) stated that this issue is not related to the government's attitude and policy and that they reacted to it."

The monument honors perpetrators of assassinations against Ottoman and Azerbaijani officials in the early 1920s.
"Normalizing Armenia-Azerbaijan and Armenia-Türkiye relations is not an easy process. There may be other countries and different elements within Armenia that oppose this.

"They said that they incited the Nemesis Monument process. But he stated that they will work sincerely and with an effort to improve and normalize relations," Sentop added.

- Scuffle between Russian, Ukrainian delegations

Regarding a scuffle that broke out between Ukrainian and Russian delegations at the 30th PABSEC Summit of parliament speakers, Sentop said that he intervened and calmed the situation.

“There is no need for such demonstrations in an environment where opinions, theses and ideas are verbally expressed. They should not be allowed either. I have made this very clear to them,” he said.

"But later on, even after I left, I heard that some such actions and provocations continued. I just talked to some of the delegation members. I find these wrong," Sentop said.

His remarks came after the tensions boiled over after Ukrainians interrupted the deputy head of the Russian delegation Olga Timofeva's speech.

The Ukrainian delegation went behind Timofeva, unfurled flags and started chanting slogans.

There was a short quarrel between the two sides.

Anna Purtova, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, left her seat vacant throughout Timofeva's speech.