Saturday,
Turkish, Armenian FMs Hold ‘Very Productive’ Talks
• Lusine Musayelian
• Tatevik Sargsian
Turkey - Foreign Ministers Mevlut Cavusoglu of Turkey and Ararat Mirzoyan of
Armenia meet in Antalya,
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held on Saturday what he described as
“very productive” talks with his visiting Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan
which highlighted ongoing attempts to normalize Turkish-Armenian relations.
Cavusoglu and Mirzoyan met on the sidelines of an international security forum
in the Turkish resort city of Antalya following two rounds of negotiations held
by special envoys of the two neighboring states.
“We had a very productive and constructive meeting,” Cavusoglu told reporters.
“Everyone will benefit from the establishment of peace and stability in the
region, and we will continue to make efforts in that direction,” he said. “I and
Mr. Mirzoyan agreed on this issue.”
“During the meeting we reaffirmed the readiness of the two sides to continue,
without any preconditions, the normalization process for the purpose of
establishing [diplomatic] relations and opening border,” Mirzoyan said, for his
part. “Our two representatives are working on this.”
Neither minister announced concrete understandings reached by them.
Mirzoyan last month voiced cautious optimism over the success of the
Turkish-Armenian dialogue welcomed by the United States, the European Union and
Russia.
Cavusoglu said on Saturday that Azerbaijan is also “content” with the dialogue.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov was also attending the Antalya
conference.
Ankara has for decades linked the establishment of diplomatic relations with
Yerevan and the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border to a resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. Cavusoglu has repeatedly
made clear that his government will coordinate the Turkish-Armenian
normalization talks with Baku.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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