Türkiye and Armenia agreed to host future talks on their own soil, rather than in third countries, as was done previously, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Friday.
“We negotiate currently which confidence-building steps we can take with Armenia. Our special representatives met four times but unfortunately abroad. The next talks will take place in Türkiye or Armenia. We are sincere in our normalization efforts with Armenia,” Çavuşoğlu said, speaking at a joint press conference with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Istanbul.
The leaders of Türkiye, Armenia and Azerbaijan met informally at the European summit last week, marking the first top-level talks between Ankara and Yerevan since they launched a bid to mend ties late last year after decades of animosity.
Erdoğan spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ahead of the Prague summit, publishing a photo of them sitting with others at a small table.
In January, Türkiye and Armenia held the first round of talks in more than 10 years, describing them as "positive and constructive" and raising the prospect of restoring ties and reopening borders.
Ankara has not had diplomatic or commercial ties with Armenia since the 1990s. The latest initiative is the first attempt to restore links since a 2009 peace accord that was never ratified.
Despite Türkiye being one of the first countries to recognize Armenia's independence in 1991, the two countries have been divided on a range of issues, including Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani territories, the events of 1915 during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, and the border closure between the two neighboring countries since 1993.
In 2021, Ankara and Yerevan mutually appointed special representatives to normalize ties.
