Russian FM to participate in diplomatic gathering in Turkish Antalya

YEREVAN, Feb. 17. /ARKA/. In a telephone conversation with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed his participation in a diplomatic forum scheduled to take place in the Turkish city of Antalya on March 11-13, as well as in a meeting on Syria in the Astana format, Russian TASS reported.

It said Lavrov and Cavusoglu discussed the latest developments regarding tensions between Russia and Ukraine stressing the importance of diplomatic initiatives to resolve this issue. In this regard, Cavusoglu confirmed that Ankara was ready to host meetings between Russia and Ukraine, according to a source cited by TASS.

Earlier, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan confirmed that the Turkish side invited him and Armenia’s special envoy on normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations Ruben Rubinyan to the Antalya Forum.

According to Mirzoyan, the decision on his participation is not made yet. He said it will depend to some extent on the outcome of the February 24 meeting in Vienna between Rubinyan and the Turkish envoy on the Armenian-Turkish dialogue, Serdar Kilic.

That will be Rubinyan and Kılıc's second meeting. Their first meeting took place in Moscow on January 14. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the meeting was held in a positive and constructive atmosphere and the special representatives exchanged preliminary views on the normalization process through dialogue between Armenia and Turkey. --0--