ANKARA. May 5 (Interfax) - There will be no peace in the South Caucasus without Turkey, Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan said.
"In my opinion, there will be no peace in the region without Turkey. We are hopeful that Turkey will take effective steps towards the achievement of peace in the region," Simonyan said at a briefing for Turkish journalists in Ankara.
Armenia "does not have any territorial claims on Azerbaijan," Simonyan said. "We are ready and highly interested in the conclusion of a peace agreement with Azerbaijan. We see no problem with opening the region for trade. Cargo and people can freely move from Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan and Turkey, clearly, with due account of Armenia's laws and sovereignty," he said.
"We have always proposed a mirrored pullout of forces from the border, and we still do," Simonyan said.
A monument erected in Yerevan in memory of the participants of Operation Nemesis, who took revenge on the organizers of the Armenian genocide of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire, does not reflect the foreign policy position of the Armenian leadership, he said.
"I regret that the unveiling of this monument in Yerevan has caused such a reaction in Turkey. It was a decision of the local authorities. I do not want this monument to be viewed by Turkey as a manifestation of Armenia's foreign policy or an un-neighborly step," Simonyan said.
The foreign policy of Armenia is conducted by the prime minister and the foreign minister, Simonyan said. "You have borne witness to the decisions made at those levels in recent months. You have to understand that one can always find a reason to worsen relations if there is such a wish. I could also find a thousand reasons not to visit Turkey. Yet I am here to tell the Turkish public that Armenia is ready for peace and normalization of relations without preconditions," he said.
"Hopefully, our Turkish partners will meet us halfway, and we will use this historical opportunity to open a new page for us and the region," Simonyan said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier that Turkey had barred Armenian aircraft from flying to third countries through its airspace "in response to the provocative unveiling of the Nemesis monument in Yerevan."
As reported, Simonyan took part in a summit of parliamentary speakers from member states of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Parliamentary Assembly, dedicated to the Assembly's 30th anniversary, and a plenary meeting of the BSEC General Assembly in Ankara.