PM Pashinyan to Visit Turkey at Erdogan’s Invitation on June 20

YEREVAN — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will visit Turkey at the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on June 20, Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Alen Simonyan has confirmed.

“The visit will be historic,” Simonian told reporters. He said it will be part of the Armenian government’s “meaningful steps” designed to eliminate the risk of another war with Azerbaijan.

Fears of such a war have been stoked by the outbreak of neighboring Iran’s military conflict with Israel. Armenian opposition politicians and pundits say that Azerbaijan may take advantage of it to invade Armenia in a bid to open a land corridor to its Nakhichevan exclave. Simonian insisted that the risk of an Azerbaijani attack is “minimal” at present.

The so-called “Zangezur corridor” sought by Baku as well as Ankara but strongly opposed by Tehran would pass through Syunik, the only Armenian region bordering Iran. Iranian leaders have repeatedly warned against attempts to strip Iran of its common border with Armenia.

Erdogan again publicly backed Azerbaijan’s demands for the corridor after wrapping up a fresh visit to Azerbaijan late last month. He spoke with Pashinian by phone on June 5.

Simonyan did not go into detail about the agenda of the visit, saying the Prime Minister’s Office will provide an update.