Russia on Thursday urged Armenia and Turkey to move ahead with an historic rapprochement and Yerevan said it hoped Ankara was not blocking ratification of their deal to end a century of hostility, Reuters reported.
"To try and artificially link those two issues is, in my opinion, not correct," Lavrov told reporters in Yerevan after meeting his Armenian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian.
"We are interested in this relationship normalising. The sooner that happens, the better for the whole region."
Rapprochement, backed by the West and Russia, would bring big economic benefits to poor, landlocked Armenia, while Turkey would burnish its credentials as a potential EU entry state and boost its clout in the Caucasus, a region criss-crossed by pipelines carrying oil and gas to the West.
Armenia's Nalbandian said: "I don't want to have the impression, and I think the international community also does not, that Turkey is specially blocking ratification of the protocols."
"What's a reasonable timeframe? It's not dragging out and not creating artificial barriers."