Turkey and Armenia aim for full normalization as diplomatic talks will focus on confidence-building measures in the next round, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said late Wednesday.
Addressing reporters in the capital Ankara, Çavuşoğlu evaluated the normalization talks between Turkey and Armenia to mend broken ties.
“In the first meeting, the aims of starting the process and what is expected from this process were discussed. Special representatives will work on what other steps can be taken besides the start of flights in the next meeting,” he said. Çavuşoğlu pointed out that confidence-building measures will be discussed in the next meeting.
Noting that the aims of the normalization process and what is expected in the coming period were discussed in the first meeting between the representatives of the two countries, Çavuşoğlu said: “The goal is full normalization. Armenians are also very happy with it.”
Ankara wants the next Turkey-Armenia diplomatic talks to be held in one of these two countries, Turkish diplomatic sources also said Thursday.
Starting Feb. 2, round-trip flights will be launched between Turkey and Armenia amid ongoing discussions to normalize the long-time broken ties between the two countries.
Turkey’s budget carrier Pegasus Airlines will operate the flights between Istanbul and Yerevan three times per week and Fly One Armenia will run three flights between Yerevan and Istanbul. The announcement came less than a week after the two countries held normalization talks in Moscow.
Following years of frozen ties, the envoys of Turkey and Armenia last Friday held their first talks toward normalizing ties in Moscow. The parties agreed to continue the negotiations with the goal of full normalization without preconditions, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry had said after the meeting.
Underlining that Turkish special envoy Serdar Kılıç and Armenian special envoy Ruben Rubinyan met in Moscow as part of the process of normalization between Turkey and Armenia, the ministry stated: “During their first meeting, which took place in a positive and constructive atmosphere, the special envoys exchanged preliminary views.
Turkey and Armenia had no diplomatic or commercial ties for three decades and the talks were the first attempt to restore links since a 2009 peace accord. That deal was never ratified and ties have remained tense.
The neighbors are at odds over various issues, primarily the 1915 incidents and Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Ankara supported Azerbaijan during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Turkey began calling for a rapprochement after the conflict. Relations between Armenia and Turkey have historically been complicated. Turkey objects to the presentation of the 1915 incidents as “genocide” but describes the events as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties. Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission made up of historians from Turkey and Armenia and international experts to tackle the issue.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said recently Armenia needed to form good ties with Azerbaijan for the normalization effort to yield results.
The Armenian government said recently it has decided to lift the embargo on Turkish goods starting on Jan. 1. Armenia originally imposed the blockade after Ankara supported Azerbaijan during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict last year.
Both countries hope that the talks will bolster peace efforts for the Caucasus region and lead to the reopening of their border to encourage trade and boost economic ties.
Ankara has made frequent calls for a six-nation platform comprising of Turkey, Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia for permanent peace, stability and cooperation in the region, saying it would be a win-win initiative for all regional actors in the Caucasus. Turkey believes that permanent peace is possible through mutual security-based cooperation among the states and people of the South Caucasus region.
The first meeting of the platform has taken place in Russia, without the participation of Georgia, which announced it will also not take part in the next round, expected to take place in Turkey.
Commenting on the tension between Russia and Ukraine, Çavuşoğlu said: “Here, the dialogue process between the United States and Russia will be decisive. NATO now responded verbally to Russia, Russia had offers. Now it will also be in written form. The tension still continues. The situation is still serious. We will continue our contact. We hope to reduce the tension in this way.”
Turkey is ready to play a role in de-escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine, Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalın said Tuesday, adding President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be traveling to Kyiv to hold talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy there in a couple of weeks.