Turkish diplomatic sources said on Tuesday Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a phone call with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan, the Daily Sabah wrote, APA reports.
The two ministers discussed bilateral and regional issues, the sources said.
It is the first official contact between two high-ranking officials of Armenia and Türkiye since a rare phone call between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last Tuesday. Erdoğan and Pashinyan have expressed determination to normalize relations without any preconditions at that call.
Türkiye and Armenia have had no diplomatic or commercial ties for three decades, and the talks are the first attempt to restore links since a 2009 peace accord. That deal was never ratified, and connections have remained tense due to “intricate historical nuances and sensitivities,” namely the 1915 events.
Türkiye, on the events of 1915, says deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties. Türkiye objects to the presentation of the incidents as "genocide," describing them as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.
The issue has been the primary source of strain between Türkiye and Armenia.
But Ankara has been mending ties with several regional countries and has emphasized the need for enhanced cooperation, within this scope steps were also taken with Armenia, particularly following the Karabakh war between Baku and Yerevan.
The sides restored diplomatic contacts in 2021 and in January 2022. Special envoys from Ankara and Yerevan began talks to fully restore ties without “preconditions.”
Since then, both Russia and Azerbaijan have voiced support for closer ties between Türkiye and Armenia, which is seen within the sphere of regional normalization but talks have been mostly at a standstill.
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