Nikol Pashinyan

Turkey has welcomed the decision by Baku and Yerevan to start talks for the establishment of permanent peace.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev recently exchanged a phone conversation to discuss the latest developments in the Caucasus following the latter's meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan said yesterday they were gearing up for peace talks after a decades-long conflict that has left thousands dead and erupted into an all-out war in 2020.

The two countries were at the centre of a six-week war in 2020 that claimed more than 6,500 lives before it ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement.

Turkey and Armenia will launch mutual charter flights on Feb. 2 as part of an ongoing process for the normalization of ties.

Ankara and Moscow are working to determine the date for a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Turkey where discussions will also focus on tensions in eastern Ukraine, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavuşoğlu said on Jan. 27, pointing out the aftermath of the Russian leader's participation in the Beijing Olympics.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Jan. 14 that Armenia will likely attend this year's Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey's southern province of Antalya.

"Our special representatives have met. If the process continues like this, it is highly possible that Armenia will participate in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum," he said at a virtual news conference.

Armenian President Armen Sarkisian has that he was resigning his largely ceremonial position, citing the inability of his office to influence policy during times of national crisis.

The announcement comes on the back of a period instability in the small and economically struggling ex-Soviet Caucasus nation in the wake of a war with its long-standing rival Azerbaijan.

The leaders of arch foes Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to ease tensions left over after their war over the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh last year under the mediation of Russia's Vladimir Putin on Nov. 26.

Both Armenia's Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev hailed talks held with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi as positive.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Sept. 27 reiterated Turkey's support to Azerbaijan and called on parties for normalization process in the region on the first anniversary of the Karabakh war.

Armenia is seeing "positive signals" from Turkey and will respond in kind, the country's prime minister said on Aug. 27.

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At a Cabinet meeting in the capital Yerevan, Premier Nikol Pashinyan acknowledged that there were positive signals coming from Ankara in terms of regional peace.

Armenia is ready to normalize its ties with Turkey, the country's Prime Minister Nicol Pashinyan has said.

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