Speaker of Turkey’s Grand National Assembly Binali Yildirim has spoken about the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and relations between Armenia and Turkey in an interview with İctimai TV, a public television channel in Azerbaijan.

According to him, relations between Yerevan and Ankara cannot be normalized if Armenia “doesn’t return the occupied territories to Azerbaijan,” Ermenihaber.am reports

"We never differentiate between Armenian-Azerbaijani and Armenian-Turkish relations,” Yildirim was quoted as saying.

“In order to reach a normalization of ties between Turkey and Armenia, problems between Armenia and Azerbaijan should be settled first. Only then will Turkey mend relations. The opposite is unlikely.”

Earlier, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in an interview with Al Jazeera that Armenia is ready to establish diplomatic relations with Turkey without preconditions.

Pashinyan said the borders between Armenia and Turkey were closed not on Yerevan’s initiative, but on Ankara’s.

In fact, he said, “that border is open from the Armenian side." According to him, it’s Turkey that should make a decision to open the border.