Turkey, Armenia to appoint envoys in bid to normalize ties

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s foreign minister says Turkey and Armenia will appoint special representatives to discuss steps to normalize their ties. Speaking in parliament late Monday, Mevlut Cavusoglu also said charter flights between Istanbul and Yerevan would restart soon. Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic ties and Turkey shut down their common border in 1993, in a show of solidarity with Armenia’s foe, Azerbaijan. In 2009, Ankara and Yerevan reached an agreement to establish formal relations and to open their joint border, but the deal was never implemented. Last year, Turkey strongly backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.