Armenian president optimistic about normalizing relations with Turkiye

Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan stated that he sees positive trends in normalizing relations between Yerevan and Ankara, Report informs via Sputnik-Armenia.

“Special representatives of Armenia and Turkiye hold meetings. Even in the information and propaganda field, I see positive trends and I hope that we will be able to establish civilized, normal and predictable good neighborly relations,” Khachaturyan said in an interview with the Italian paper SpecialEurasia.

He noted that Yerevan has always supported the establishment of relations with Ankara and opening borders without preconditions.

There are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkiye, and the border has been closed since 1993 at the initiative of Ankara.

In December 2021, Armenia and Turkiye appointed their special representatives for negotiations on the normalization of bilateral relations. From the Armenian side, it was the vice-speaker of the parliament Ruben Rubinyan, and Ankara is represented by the former ambassador to the United States, Serdar Kilic. Diplomats have already held four rounds of negotiations. The first meeting was held in Moscow, the other three took place in Vienna. Moreover, in July 2022, the first telephone conversation between the Prime Minister of Armenia and the President of Turkiye took place, and in October, they met for the first time in Prague.