Enlarge image
Black limousine at the Moscow conference venue
Photo: Anadolu Agency / Anadolu / Getty Images
The weather in Moscow suits the diplomatic overtures: With temperatures just above freezing, delegations from Armenia and Turkey have tried to improve the icy relationship that has been going on for decades.
Representatives of both countries met in the Russian capital on Friday.
The meeting took place "in a positive and constructive atmosphere," said the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries afterwards.
According to the Anadolu Agency, the conversation lasted about 90 minutes.
Turkey was represented by former Ambassador to the US Serdar Kilic, Armenia by Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ruben Rubinyan.
Both sides are ready to continue negotiations with the aim of fully normalizing relations, it said.
Accordingly, there are “no preconditions” for further dialogue. A date for the next meeting has not yet been set.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sees himself as a mediator in the rapprochement.
Lavrov was "very pleased" with the first meeting in Moscow.
Genocide in the First World War still has an impact today
Relations between the two neighboring countries are burdened by several conflicts - including the genocide of the Armenians in the First World War.
According to historians, around 1.5 million Armenians were victims of systematic killings in the Ottoman Empire at the time.
As its legal successor, Turkey admits the massacre of 300,000 to 500,000 people, but rejects the classification as genocide.
Recognition of the atrocities as genocide by the Bundestag in 2016 put a heavy strain on German-Turkish relations.
The border between the two countries has been closed since 1993, and diplomatic contacts were suspended for years until December last year.
A 2009 agreement to resume formal exchanges and open the common border was never ratified due to opposition from Azerbaijan, according to Reuters news agency.
Turkey maintains close ties with Armenia's hostile neighbor and also supported it militarily in the recent war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus.
Turkish scheduled flights to Yerevan again from February
Armenia and Turkey announced in December that they were ready to normalize relations.
Armenia later decided not to extend an embargo on Turkish products.
The Turkish low-cost airline Pegasus Airlines, in turn, wants to fly regularly to the Armenian capital Yerevan from February.
fek/Reuters/dpa