Turkey, Armenia to appoint envoy in a bid to normalize relations

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that Turkey and Armenia will appoint special representatives in a bid to normalize relations.

“Soon, we (Armenia and Turkey) will mutually appoint special representatives for the normalization effort,” Çavuşoğlu said during the Foreign Ministry budget debates in the parliament on December 13.

Answering the opposition IYI (Good) Party lawmaker Erhan Usta’s question about the details of the normalization process, the Foreign Minsiter said that both countries are to “appoint special representatives, not embassies.”

“If (relations) becomes normalized in the future and Armenia chooses peace and tranquillity by taking lessons from these recent events, an embassy can be opened in this normalization process. We will decide it together with Azerbaijan on this issue,” he said, emphasizing that the initiative is “coordinated” with Azerbaijan.

Following Çavuşoğlu’s announcement, Vahan Hunanyan, the spokesperson of the Armenian Foreign Ministry stated that Yerevan welcomed Ankara’s effort.

“In this regard, we positively assess the statement of the Turkish Foreign Minister on the appointment of a special representative for the normalization of relations, and confirm that the Armenian side will appoint a special representative for this dialogue,” Hunanyan said on December 14 the Public Radio of Armenia reported.

Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic ties. Turkey shut down their border with Armenia in 1993 following an armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia but situated within Azerbaijan territory. As a result, Turkey did not open an embassy in Yerevan.

Relations took a different path in September and October 2020, as Turkey-backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict with Armenia over the region, which resulted in Azerbaijan taking control of some parts of Nagorno-Karabakh.

President Tayyip Erdogan announced on October 26 that Ankara’s way to normalize relations with Yerevan was through Baku. Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan in Sochi on November 26. Erdoğan and Putin also discussed the issue on December 3 in a telephone conversation.

The agreement reached between the two countries with the mediation of Switzerland in 2009 did not yield results as the Armenian parliament did not accept the withdrawal plan from the occupied territories.