Cavusoglu: Turkey and Armenia will appoint special envoys for the  normalization of bilateral relations

ArmInfo. Turkey and Armenia will appoint special envoys to discuss steps to normalize relations between the two countries. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu,  speaking in the country's parliament, stated this on Monday.

The Turkish Foreign Minister also announced the resumption of charter  flights between Istanbul and Yerevan. "In the near future we will  start charter flights between Yerevan and Istanbul," he said.

Cavusoglu stressed that Turkey would also move in coordination with  Azerbaijan on the normalization steps with Armenia.  "We and  Azerbaijan are making intensive diplomatic efforts to establish peace  and prosperity in the Caucasian region," the diplomat assured,  Anadolu reports.

The Foreign Minister also did not rule out the possibility of  establishing diplomatic relations with Armenia, if Yerevan adheres to  a constructive position. "We coordinate all issues with Azerbaijan,  discuss, make a decision together with them. If Armenia learns  lessons from recent events and prefers peace and tranquility, we can  also open an embassy. We will also resolve this issue together with  Azerbaijan," he said.

To note, there have been no diplomatic relations between Armenia and  Turkey since 1993. On December 24, 1991, Turkey officially recognized  the Republic of Armenia. But, already in 1993, Turkey unilaterally  closed the air and land borders with Armenia. The air border was  opened in 1995 under pressure from the international community. To  open the land border and establish diplomatic relations, Turkey puts  forward a number of unacceptable conditions, in particular, the  return to Azerbaijan of the regions under the control of the NKR and  the refusal of international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Since 1991, a number of attempts have been made to normalize  bilateral relations, which have yielded no results due to Turkey's  position.

In 2008, at the initiative of the President of Armenia, a new stage  in the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations began, as a result  of which on October 10, 2009, the foreign ministers of the two  countries in Zurich signed protocols "On the establishment of  diplomatic relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic  of Turkey" and "On the development of relations between the Republic  of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey ". However, after the signing  of the protocols, Turkey, having sharply changed its position and  refusing the reached agreements to normalize relations within a  reasonable timeframe and without any preconditions, conditioned the  ratification of the treaties in the Turkish Grand National Assembly  with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. Taking into  account the position of Turkey, as well as the appeal of the  political councils of the parties belonging to the ruling coalition,  the President of the Republic on April 22, 2010 signed a decree on  the suspension of the process of ratification of the Protocols. On  February 16, 2015, the protocols were withdrawn from the National  Assembly in accordance with the decree of the President of Armenia.  On March 1, 2018, the President of the Republic of Armenia signed a  decree terminating the procedure for concluding protocols "On the  establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Armenia  and the Republic of Turkey" and "On the development of relations  between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey."