Turkey on Friday hailed a deal between arch-foes Armenia and Azerbaijan to swap prisoners of war and work toward normalising ties torn by decades of strife over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
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Azerbaijan reclaimed the long-disputed enclave after a lightning offensive against Armenian separatists in September.

It was followed by a breakdown in relations between Armenia and its historic ally Russia and renewed attempts between Baku and Yerevan to strike an elusive peace deal.

Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey has been making fitful efforts to normalise its own historically difficult relations with Armenia in the past few years.

Turkey’s foreign ministry said it “welcomes” Thursday’s breakthrough, and supports the work by the Caucasus neighbours on “adopting additional confidence-building steps”.

“We hope that a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia is signed as soon as possible,” the Turkish ministry said.

The United States and the European Union have also hailed the deal.

EU chief Charles Michel on Thursday called it “a major breakthrough”.
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