ANKARA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- The envoys of Turkey and Armenia held the third round of normalization talks in the Austrian capital Vienna on Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
"The special representatives reaffirmed the declared goal of achieving full normalization between their respective countries through this process," the ministry said in a statement.
In this sense, they had a "sincere and productive exchange of concrete views and discussed possible steps that can be undertaken for tangible progress in this direction," the statement said.
The two countries reiterated their agreement to continue the process without preconditions, it added.
Turkey appointed Serdar Kilic, a former ambassador to the United States, as its special representative to the talks, while Armenia dispatched Deputy Speaker Ruben Rubinyan.
Their first round of talks was held in the Russian capital of Moscow on Jan. 14, followed by the second round in Vienna on Feb. 24.
In February, the two sides resumed charter flights between Istanbul, the largest Turkish city, and Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan met on March 12 in the southwestern resort city of Antalya in Turkey, expressing their willingness to continue to normalize ties.
Relations between the two countries were severed in 1993 during the first war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh when Turkey closed its border with Armenia in support of Azerbaijan.
Turkey and Armenia made serious attempts to restore ties in 2008-2009, with American and Swiss intermediation, but failed to make a breakthrough. ■
