Turkey and Armenia have met at a high level. Foreign ministers Çavusoglu and Mirzoyan met at a diplomat conference in the Turkish resort of Antalya. The aim was to improve mutual relations. Afterwards, both were positive.
Çavusoglu spoke of “productive and constructive” consultations with his Armenian colleague after the thirty-minute interview. Mirzoyan called the Turkish invitation “a positive signal”. The meeting in Antalya, where Ukraine was also discussed earlier in the week, is a follow-up to a meeting in January.
Turkey and Armenia have had no diplomatic and commercial ties for decades. There is also no border traffic. In 2009, the two countries reached an agreement on reconciliation, but it has never been ratified.
Armenian Genocide
The main point of contention between the two countries is the Armenian Genocide. From April 1915, in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of modern Turkey, Armenians were expelled from their habitats. 1 to 1.5 million Armenians were killed. The Armenians see this as genocide and many countries, including the Netherlands, recognize this. Turkey acknowledges that there have been many Armenian casualties, but says there was no systematic genocide.
Tensions between the two countries rose again in 2020 following the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Turkey accused Armenian soldiers of occupying Azerbaijani territory. Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave in Azerbaijan with a corridor to Armenia† The population consists of ethnic Armenians.
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