Turkish, Armenian, Azeri leaders meet at summit despite rifts

ISTANBUL, Oct 6 (Reuters) – Turkish, Armenian and Azeri leaders met informally at a European summit on Thursday, Turkish media reported, marking the primary high stage talks between Turkey and Armenia since they launched a bid to fix ties late final yr after a long time of animosity.

State-owned Anadolu information company stated President Tayyip Erdogan spoke with Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azeri chief Ilham Aliyev forward of the Prague summit, publishing a photograph of them sitting with others at a small desk.

In January, Turkey and Armenia held a primary spherical of talks in additional than 10 years, describing them as “constructive and constructive” and elevating the prospect of restoring ties and reopening borders.

Ankara has not had diplomatic or business ties with Armenia because the Nineties. The newest initiative is the primary try to revive hyperlinks since a 2009 peace accord that was by no means ratified.

Tensions flared throughout a 2020 conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh territory. Turkey accused ethnic Armenian forces of occupying land belonging to Azerbaijan, however it subsequently known as for a rapprochement because it seeks to broaden its regional affect.

Turkey and Armenia are at odds primarily over the 1.5 million folks Armenia says had been killed in 1915 by the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor to fashionable Turkey.

Armenia says this constitutes genocide. Turkey accepts that many Armenians dwelling within the Ottoman Empire had been killed in clashes with Ottoman forces throughout World Struggle One, however contests the figures and denies it was systematic or constitutes genocide.

Amid the normalisation efforts, a business flight from Yerevan landed in Istanbul in February within the first such direct flight in two years.

Turkish Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan at a diplomatic discussion board in southern Turkey in March and stated that they had a really “productive and constructive” assembly.

That was the primary sit-down assembly between the 2 nations’ overseas ministers since 2009. They spoke briefly on the sidelines of an OSCE assembly final November.

Erdogan has beforehand stated Armenia wanted to kind good ties with Azerbaijan for the normalisation effort to yield outcomes.

Reporting by Daren Butler; Enhancing by Jonathan Spicer and Jonathan Oatis

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