Türkiye will not accept that the next round of talks between Ankara and Yerevan to mend ties be held in a third country, a high-level Turkish official said, indicating that the meeting between the special envoys should take place in either Türkiye or Armenia.

Türkiye does not have any reservations on holding the talks in Armenia, the official said, indicating that, similarly, they can be held in the Kars province near the Armenian border. A precise date was not provided for the next meeting.

The official said that rather than labeling the ongoing process between the two countries as "normalization" it will be healthier to view it as a process of confidence building. The talks are continuing in a "constructive manner," he added, saying that the countries need to focus on goals that can be delivered. The official highlighted that the two special envoys are in close contact and held more than 500 phone calls besides the four meetings that took place.

Ankara has been mending ties with several regional countries and has emphasized the need for enhanced cooperation, steps were also taken with Armenia within this scope, particularly following the latest Karabakh war between Baku and Yerevan.

Since then, both Russia and Azerbaijan have voiced support for closer ties between Türkiye and Armenia, which is seen within the sphere of regional normalization.

Türkiye had offered Armenia to host the first round of normalization talks between the two countries in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

The official underlined that the current rapprochement should be on a step-by-step basis while expectations should not be put too high since there are ongoing problems within Armenia regarding a prejudice toward Turkey as is the case toward Azerbaijan.

"The Türkiye, Armenia relations are steered by certain prejudices," the official said.

The international community should encourage the taking of positive steps within this framework, the official emphasized.

Reiterating that so far four rounds of talks were held between the two sides, the official said that "this is not the desired picture currently."

The official further said that still there is a will by a large part of the Armenian population to enhance ties with Türkiye, especially those that increasingly face economic problems at home in contrast to the Armenian diaspora which is actively voicing it is against such a normalization.

"Türkiye and Armenia have a trade volume of about $230 billion," the official, adding that however, a large part of trade is going through Georgia. "If this would be going directly through Armenia, the country would be benefiting much more."

During the last round, it was agreed that the neighbors would start direct air cargo trade between the countries at the earliest possible date while it was also "agreed to enable the crossing of the land border between Türkiye and Armenia by third-country citizens visiting one of the two countries.

It is expected that technical issues toward this aim are discussed in September.

Regarding the decision on citizens of third countries, the official said that realizing this goal could take some time as there are infrastructure problems that need to be addressed including roads and old bridges. Therefore, officials on trade as well as transportation should come together and exchange views on the issues, he added.

The land border between the two neighbors has been closed since 1993, in the wake of clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Türkiye and Armenia restored diplomatic contacts last December after they were suspended for years.

In January, special envoys from Ankara and Yerevan began talks to fully restore ties "without preconditions."

Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kılıç and Armenian National Assembly Deputy Speaker Ruben Rubinyan, the special representatives for the normalization, held their fourth meeting in the Austrian capital of Vienna.

The first round of normalization talks was held in Moscow on Jan. 14, where both parties agreed to continue negotiations without any preconditions, according to a statement released after that meeting.

The Turkish and Armenian envoys met for the second time in Vienna on Feb. 24, and the third meeting was held on May 3, also in the Austrian capital.

Also, a historic bilateral meeting took place between the foreign ministers of Türkiye and Armenia on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on March 12 while President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian had a phone call last month.

While the two countries have been discussing a wide range of issues on bilateral ties and the region, the issue of the Zangezur corridor or the 1915 events did not come up, the official said.

The fact that Pashinian won elections even following the Karabakh war, is showing that certain circles in the country do desire regional peace and stability, pointing to a change in hostile stances toward neighbors, the official said.

On whether other countries have an influence on relations between Türkiye and Armenia, the official said that unavoidably countries such as Russia or Azerbaijan have an effect on the process but that the current international context after the Karabakh war is amenable to enhancing ties. Saying that enhanced ties between Ankara and Yerevan would benefit the whole region just as enhanced regional trade would do, the official said that this should "not be a mutually exclusive, but mutually reinforcing process" with third countries.

"Russia, while it has the potential to do so, did not make a move to spoil the process between Türkiye and Armenia."

Azerbaijan's victory that ended the occupation of its Karabakh region, previously known as Nagorno-Karabakh, also helped pave the way for the normalization between Türkiye and Armenia.

Relations between the two former Soviet countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military illegally occupied Karabakh, a territory internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

New clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, and the 44-day conflict saw Azerbaijan liberate several cities and over 300 settlements and villages that were occupied by Armenia for almost three decades.

Türkiye believes that permanent peace is possible through mutual security-based cooperation between the states and people of the South Caucasus region.