Turkey’s FM Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday arranged a meeting, around a dinner table, with a delegation led by Archbishop Aram Atesyan, General Vicar of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople. 

Davutoglu expressed the hope that Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s message in connection with April 24—the anniversary date of the Armenian Genocide—will receive an appropriate response from the Armenians.  

After the meeting, Davutoglu told reporters that the talk was held in a very friendly atmosphere, and that the Armenian community representatives expressed their satisfaction with Erdogan’s message, reported Anadolu news agency of Turkey.

“The PM’s message of condolence was a human duty, wherewith we again showed that we wish to establish a discourse with Armenians living anywhere in the world.

“We hope that the centuries-long peace in these lands will continue and our extended hand of peace will not remain in the air,” the Turkish FM said.       

Prior to his talk with Ahmet Davutoglu, Archbishop Aram Atesyan also had met with PM Erdogan.

For the first time in Turkey’s history, and ahead of the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan condoled with the relatives of the victims of the Genocide in 1915. His respective statement, however, did not deviate from Turkey’s official policy of Genocide denial.