Turkey and Armenia will mutually appoint special envoys to discuss steps to normalize ties, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced Monday.

The two countries will also restart charter flights between Istanbul and Yerevan, Çavuşoğlu said at his ministry's budgetary discussions in Parliament.

The borders between the two countries have been closed for decades and diplomatic relations have been on hold.

Armenia and Turkey signed a landmark peace accord in 2009 to restore ties and open their shared border after decades, but the deal was never ratified and ties have remained tense.

Relations between Armenia and Turkey have historically been complicated. Turkey's position on the events of 1915 is that Armenians lost their lives in eastern Anatolia after some sided with the invading Russians and revolted against the Ottoman forces. The subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties, with massacres by militaries and militia groups from both sides increasing the death toll.

Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as "genocide" but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.

Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission made up of historians from Turkey and Armenia and international experts to tackle the issue.

During the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict last year, Ankara supported Baku and accused Yerevan of occupying Azerbaijan’s territories.

Çavuşoğlu said Turkey would coordinate steps to normalize ties between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Following Çavuşoğlu’s statements, the Armenian Foreign Ministry similarly said on Tuesday it will appoint a special representative to normalize relations with Turkey.

Vahan Hunanyan, the ministry spokesperson, welcomed Çavuşoğlu’s announcement, according to Public Radio of Armenia.

"In this regard, we positively assess the statement of the Turkish Foreign Minister on the appointment of a special representative for the normalization of relations, and confirm that the Armenian side will appoint a special representative for this dialogue," the broadcaster reported citing Hunanyan.

He noted that Armenia is ready to normalize relations with Turkey without preconditions.

"In the Caucasus, we are making intense diplomatic efforts to build regional peace and prosperity along with Azerbaijan," Çavuşoğlu added.

The rapprochement between Yerevan and Ankara comes as the head of the European Council plans to host the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia for a trilateral meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

According to European Union sources, Charles Michel will first hold separate meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian before a tripartite meeting later in the evening.

EU sources welcomed the establishment of a direct line of communication between the defense chiefs of the two countries after the war in Nagorno-Karabakh last year and said that there was more to be done to stabilize ties between them.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decadeslong dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies within Azerbaijan but was under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

Moscow brokered a peace deal last November to end six weeks of fighting over the territory, during which more than 6,600 people were killed. The Russia-brokered truce allowed Azerbaijan to reclaim control over large parts of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that the Armenia-backed separatists controlled.

Tensions on the two nations’ border have been building since May, and clashes have been reported ever since.

Most recently, in renewed clashes, Azerbaijan and Armenia last week traded blame for tensions at the border that resulted in casualties on both sides.

"Full responsibility for the escalation lies with Armenia's political and military leaders," Baku’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Last month, Aliyev and Pashinian met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia.

After the meeting, Putin said that the three leaders agreed to create, before the end of the year, mechanisms for the delimitation and demarcation of the border between the two countries. The talks focused on resolving disputes left over from last year's war and were hailed by all sides as positive.

The trio met less than two weeks after the worst fighting since the Karabakh war killed six Armenian troops and seven Azerbaijani soldiers. They also addressed the issue of rebuilding Soviet-era transport links between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which are currently closed by a mutual blockade.