ANKARA, Jul 12 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, held a phone conversation yesterday, on the diplomatic normalisation process to end decades-long hostilities between the two neighbours.
The two leaders expected the steps agreed upon in the Vienna meetings earlier this month, will be implemented soon, Erdogan’s office said in a statement.
They agreed that normalisation between Türkiye and Armenia will “contribute to the strengthening of peace and stability in the region,” it said.
The two leaders also exchanged holiday greetings on the occasions of Eid al-Adha and the upcoming Vardavar Festival in Armenia, it noted.
Representatives of the two countries met in Vienna on Jul 1, for the fourth round of talks on normalisation, where they agreed on taking new steps to push forward the process, including moves to enable border-crossing for third-country travellers and direct air cargo trade between Türkiye and Armenia at the earliest possible date.
After the first bilateral meeting was held on Jan 14, in the Russian capital of Moscow, the two countries in Feb, resumed charter flights between Türkiye’s largest city Istanbul and the Armenian capital of Yerevan.
Relations between the two countries were severed in 1993, during the first war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, when Türkiye closed the border with Armenia in support of Azerbaijan.– NNN-ANADOLU
