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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has renewed his demands for the opening of the “Zangezur corridor” as part of Turkey’s preconditions for normalizing relations with Armenia, says Varuzhan Geghamyan, an academic and expert on Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.

“If Armenia honors it commitments, particularly regarding the opening of the “Zangezur corridor”, Turkey is ready for step-by-step normalization of relations with Armenia,” Erdogan reportedly told his cabinet on Monday, adding that Armenia should adopt a “policy of peace and development” and urging Iran to join the “historic project”.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Geghamyan suggested that Erdogan’s remarks referred to the Armenian leadership’s “promise to open a corridor back in 2020.”

“Turkey will not normalize relations with Armenia under any circumstances and will use that bait to coerce new concessions from Armenia ‘step by step’,” the expert wrote.

“Iran remains the only real deterrent against the Turanian corridor through Syunik. This is the reason why recently the Turkish-Azerbaijani duo is trying to soften Iran’s stance at any cost,” he added.