Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Thursday called on Armenia and Turkey to move forward quickly on stalled efforts to ratify a landmark deal to establish full diplomatic relations.
"We are interested in ties being normalized...The quicker this happens, the better for the entire region," Lavrov said during a joint press conference with his Armenian counterpart, Eduard Nalbandian.
Lavrov said Russia was ready to assist both countries with infrastructure projects, including electricity and rail links, once they agree to establish ties and open their border.
He also rejected any links between the normalization process and the dispute between Armenia and Turkish ally Azerbaijan over the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh region.
"We see no connections between the process of normalizing Turkish-Armenian relations and resolving Nagorny Karabakh," Lavrov said. "In my opinion, it is not correct to try to artificially link these two processes."
Turkey and Armenia signed two protocols in October to establish diplomatic ties and reopen their shared border, in a deal hailed as a historic step toward ending decades of hostility stemming from World War I-era massacres.
But Armenia, in recent weeks, has expressed growing frustration over the Turkish Parliament's failure to ratify the protocols. The Armenian Parliament also has yet to ratify the accord.
Turkish officials have repeatedly said the agreements won't be ratified without progress in the dispute over Nagorny Karabakh.
Backed by Yerevan, ethnic Armenian separatists seized control of Karabakh and seven surrounding districts from Azerbaijan during a war in the early 1990s that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan--with which it has strong ethnic, trade and energy links--against Yerevan's support for the enclave's separatists.