Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Istanbul and Yerevan will appoint special envoys to discuss steps to normalize relations and resume charter flights. transfers Reuters.
According to him, on the issue of relations with Armenia, the Turkish side consulted with Azerbaijan and in the future will also coordinate its actions with Baku in this process. At the same time, he did not specify exactly when it is planned to appoint special representatives.
Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vahan Hunanyan statedthat official Yerevan assesses positively the statement of the Turkish Foreign Minister on the appointment of a special representative in order to normalize relations with Armenia. He added that the Armenian side will also appoint its own special representative.
According to Hunanyan, Armenia, as always, is ready for the process of normalizing relations with Turkey without preconditions, stressing that this is spelled out in the program of the Armenian government.
There are no diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia, the border between the countries has been closed since 1993. This is due to a number of circumstances, in particular, Turkey’s acute reaction to the process of international recognition of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire and Ankara’s support for the Azerbaijani position in the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
In October 2009, Armenian Foreign Ministers Edward Nalbandian and Turkish Foreign Ministers Ahmet Davutoglu signed in Zurich “Protocol on the establishment of diplomatic relations” and “Protocol on the development of bilateral relations”, which must be ratified by the parliaments of the two countries. But Recep Erdogan, who came to power in Turkey, said that Ankara would not ratify the protocols without resolving the Karabakh conflict. Therefore, in 2010, the process of ratification of the protocols was stopped, and the documents themselves were withdrawn from parliament.
Despite the fact that Turkey and Armenia do not have diplomatic relations, and the border between them is closed, they actively trade with each other through third countries: the trade turnover between the countries reaches $ 200 million annually.
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