Armenian and Turkish special envoys on Friday (14 January) held their first round of talks aimed at normalising relations between their two countries. The talks were held in Moscow. The deputy speaker of the national assembly, Ruben Rubinyan, represented the Armenian side and Ambassador Serdar Kili represented Turkey. The talks lasted for an hour and according to diplomatic readouts, the meeting was held in a “positive, constructive atmosphere", in which the special envoys exchanged their initial thoughts on the settlement process.
While no concrete measures were agreed upon, the parties agreed to continue negotiations for a full settlement without preconditions, and announced that a date and place of a second meeting would be decided in due course.
The EU’s special representative to the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, Toivo Klaar tweeted his support for the meeting, affirming that the opening of communications and the normalisation of communications was an important objective which the EU supports.