Armenian and Turkish Foreign Ministers discuss bilateral issues and continuation of dialogue
YEREVAN, 18 October. /ARKA/. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on the sidelines of the 3+3 platform meeting in Istanbul, the Armenian Foreign Ministry's press service reported.
The two officials discussed bilateral issues and the continuation of the dialogue aimed at the full settlement of relations between Armenia and Turkey.
Mirzoyan reaffirmed the importance of the implementation of the agreements reached during the process.
During the meeting, the sides also exchanged views on regional developments.
On Armenian-Turkish dialog
Although Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Armenia’s independence from the former Soviet Union, the countries have no diplomatic ties and Turkey shut down their common border in 1993, in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan which was locked in a conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Turkey also refuses to recognize the Armenian genocide, committed during 1915-1923 when an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman government. The overwhelming majority of historians widely view the event as genocide.
In 2020, Turkey strongly backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan gain control of a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In December 2021, Armenia and Turkey appointed special envoys for normalization of their relations.
On March 12, 2022, Armenian and Turkish Foreign Ministers met on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum to discuss normalization of relations, and both sides reaffirmed their readiness to advance the process without preconditions, so that it would lead to the establishment of relations and opening of borders between the two countries.
On July 1, 2022, the envoys agreed to open the border for the citizens of the third countries visiting Armenia and Turkey respectively. An agreement was also reached to start the direct air transportation of goods between Armenia and Turkey as soon as possible.
In February 2023 Armenia sent two convoys of trucks with food, medicine and other relief supplies to Turkey's quake-stricken regions, which crossed into Turkey through the border gate that was opened for the first time since 1993.
After the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan began to actively promote the idea of "era of peace» through normalization of relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan.-0-
