In Armenia

Turkish and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Hakan Fidan and Ceyhun Bayramov, held a key meeting in the Turkish capital Ankara on Aug. 27 to discuss their countries' ongoing separate talks with Armenia for the normalization of their relationships.

Bayramov came to Ankara for a one-day visit and met his Turkish counterpart, Fidan.

Armenia has returned to Azerbaijan four border villages it had seized decades ago, officials in Yerevan and Baku confirmed Friday, in a key step towards normalizing ties between the historic rivals.

The two countries in the Caucasus fought two wars in the 1990s and in 2020 for control of the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

While voicing Turkey's support for ongoing peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said it's time to open a new page in the South Caucasus to build the future together by taking lessons from the pains suffered in the past.

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.

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.

Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has called on Armenia to end "hostility," stressing that a future cannot be built in the region based on "grudge and hatred."

A senior U.S. senator has proposed measures targeting Turkey's defense sector exports as well as aid to Azerbaijan.

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.

Joint military drills between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Pakistan started in Baku on Sept. 12, the first such drills between the three countries.

The "Three Brothers - 2021" exercises kicked off with a solemn opening ceremony. While national anthems of the participating countries were played and their flags raised, a minute of silence was also observed to commemorate their "martyrs".