Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center right, speaks with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, center left, after a group photo during a meeting of the European Political Community at Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday, Oct 6, 2022. Leaders from around 44 countries are gathering Thursday to launch a “European Political Community” aimed at boosting security and economic prosperity across the continent, with Russia the one major European power not invited. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was also present at what appeared to be an informal gathering of the three leaders. No details of what they discussed immediately emerged.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu meets with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan on March 12, 2022 in Antalya, Turkey. – MFA Press Office via dia images via Getty Images
Turkey and Armenia, which have no diplomatic relations, agreed last year to start talks aimed at putting decades of bitterness behind and reopen their joint border. Special envoys appointed by the two countries have held four rounds of talks since then. Their discussions have resulted in an agreement to resume charter flights between Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, and the Armenian capital of Yerevan.
From left, Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Petr Fiala, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pose at a group photo during a meeting of the European Political Community at Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday, Oct 6, 2022. Leaders from around 44 countries are gathering Thursday to launch a “European Political Community” aimed at boosting security and economic prosperity across the continent, with Russia the one major European power not invited. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, shut down its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity with Baku, which was locked in a conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
In 2020, Turkey strongly backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan gain control of a significant part of the region.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, center, speaks with Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic, left, during a meeting of the European Political Community at Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday, Oct 6, 2022. Leaders from around 44 countries are gathering Thursday to launch a “European Political Community” aimed at boosting security and economic prosperity across the continent, with Russia the one major European power not invited. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Turkey and Armenia also have a more than century-old hostility over the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey.
FILE – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, is welcomed by European Council President Charles Michel prior to a meeting at the European Council building in Brussels, Monday, March 9, 2020. Leaders from more than 40 countries will gather Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Prague, to launch a “European Political Community” aimed at boosting security and economic prosperity across the continent, but critics claim the new forum is an attempt to put the brakes on European Union enlargement. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)
It is Ankara and Yerevan’s second attempt at reconciliation. Turkey and Armenia reached an agreement in 2009 to establish formal relations and to open their border, but the agreement was never ratified because of strong opposition from Azerbaijan.
Last month, Armenia and Azerbaijan negotiated a cease-fire to end a flare-up of fighting that killed 155 soldiers from both sides.
