Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan held talks in Turkey on Saturday in a third meeting as part of ongoing efforts to restore ties between the two countries, Hürriyet Daily News reported on Saturday.
Çavuşoğlu described the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the sidelines of Antalya Diplomacy Forum, as “productive and constructive,’’ it said.
The two sides held talks in January in a first attempt to restore links since a 2009 peace accord, which was never ratified, after diplomatic and commercial ties had been suspended since the 1990s.
The countries are at odds over a string of issues, primarily the 1915 mass killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire.
The first round was held in Moscow, with both parties saying it was conducted in “a positive and constructive atmosphere”.
The second meeting between special envoys from Turkey and Armenia to discuss steps for normalizing ties between the two countries was held in Vienna on February 24.
Talks are progressing in the right direction with Turkey and Armenia planning to establish diplomatic ties and open the sealed border to start economic and social interaction, Hürriyet Daily News reported, citing diplomatic sources.
Speaking to the Armenian parliament, Mirzoyan said the normalisation process would take place without preconditions, as reaffirmed by both parties, with the end goal for Armenia being the opening of the border between the two countries.
Turkish-Armenian deputy with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s Garo Paylan hailed the meeting between Çavuşoğlu and Mirzoyan in a Twitter post.
https://twitter.com/GaroPaylan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1502583364322312195%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fahvalnews.com%2Fturkey-armenia%2Fthird-round-armenia-normalisation-talks-constructive-says-turkish-fm