In an ongoing war of words that reveal a widening divide between Turkey and Armenia, rather than hoped-for “normalization”, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan today reiterated his government’s position that it is Turkey, rather than Armenia who jeopardizes the protocol process through “preconditions”.

Nalbandyan said that he had already talked to his Turkish counterpart on the phone and expressed his bewilderment over the statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry that reacted angrily to the decision by the Armenian Constitutional Court seeing “unacceptable preconditions” in it.

At Friday’s (January 22) press conference Armenia’s top diplomat also confirmed that a meeting of the presidents of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan will take place in Sochi, Russia, on January 25.

During the press conference the minister said that 2009 was a year of intensive negotiations on the Karabakh settlement.

“We hope that we will be able to keep up the positive tendencies observed in the negotiating process in 2010,” he said.

Commenting at journalists’ request on Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan’s visit to Iran earlier this week, Nalbandyan said that Kocharyan was invited by the Iranian leadership and that the visit was of a private nature. “Robert Kocharyan did not say anything in Tehran that would run counter to official Yerevan’s position,” said Nalbandyan.

Kocharyan was in Tehran January 20-21 where he met with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Minister of Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki. During the meetings the sides discussed issues relating to bilateral relations. While in Tehran Kocharyan stated that Armenia is ready to expand cooperation with Iran. “This statement in no way contradicts the policy of Armenia in relations with Iran,” Minister Nalbandyan emphasized.