Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz will travel to Armenia to attend the 8th Summit of the European Political Community on May 4, this according to the Turkish Anadolu Agency.

The meeting will convene leaders from across Europe to discuss security, energy, and stability and is part of the recurring, twice-yearly gatherings of forty-seven participating countries designed to promote dialogue between EU and non-EU nations.

This will be the highest Turkish delegation to visit Armenia since the 2008 visit of then Turkish President Abdullah Gül who travelled to Yerevan for normalization talks known colloquially as “football diplomacy”.

In September 2008, Gül attended a World Cup qualifier in Yerevan upon an invitation from then Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan—the first visit by a Turkish head of state since Armenian independence.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has not attended recent summits of the European Political Community.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov has stated that Baku will not be represented at any level at the summit, citing a tight schedule and the lack of a signed peace treaty with Armenia.

The next summit, to which the heads of state and government of the twenty-seven European Union member countries, as well as other European countries and Canada, have been invited, is scheduled to be held in Ireland in November.