Armenia and Turkey agreed to proceed talks with out preconditions after a primary spherical of conferences geared toward normalizing ties concluded in Moscow on Friday.
Ankara and Yerevan lack diplomatic relations. However in December, the neighboring international locations agreed to name special envoys — former Turkish ambassador to the US Serdar Kilic and Armenia’s deputy parliament speaker Ruben Rubinyan — to put the groundwork for normalization.
The Armenian and Turkish overseas ministries described the assembly between Rubinyan and Kilic on Friday as “optimistic and constructive.”
The “events agreed to proceed negotiations with out preconditions aiming at full normalization,” the ministries stated. “Date and venue of their second assembly will likely be determined in due time by diplomatic channels.”
Citing diplomatic sources, the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reported Friday that the closed-door assembly within the Russian capital lasted for an hour and a half.
The connection between Turkey and Armenia has been traditionally tense. Turkey shut its borders to Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with its ally Azerbaijan, which was locked in a bitter struggle with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh area.
In 2020, Ankara backed Baku in its newest battle with Yerevan over the disputed enclave, which ended after six weeks in a Russian-brokered truce.
The connection can be strained over the mass killing of as much as 1.5 million Armenians by the hands of Ottoman forces starting in 1915. Ankara has lengthy denied {that a} genocide came about.
In an indication that ties between Armenia and Turkey are enhancing, Armenia’s Economic system Ministry introduced in late December that it was lifting an embargo on Turkish imports that was imposed throughout final 12 months’s 44-day struggle.
Turkish Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated final month that Turkish and Armenian airways had utilized to supply flights between Istanbul and Yerevan. Reuters reported on Thursday that Turkish service Pegasus and Moldovan airline FlyOne will start fights between the 2 capitals subsequent month.
The European Union referred to as the particular envoys’ assembly on Friday “an necessary step ahead.”
“Any additional concrete steps in the direction of the normalization of relations can be good news for regional stability and prospects for reconciliation and financial improvement,” the EU stated in a press release.
The Armenia-Turkey talks come as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seeks to fix ties with numerous different international locations within the area, together with Israel, Egypt and several other Gulf states. Earlier this month, Erdogan introduced plans to visit Saudi Arabia in February.
