President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed their determination to normalize Türkiye-Armenia relations without any preconditions on Tuesday.
In a phone call, the two leaders reiterated political will to normalize bilateral ties, the Presidency's Directorate of Communications said in a statement.
They confirmed the issues the two countries reached a settlement on, as they highlighted the importance of maintaining talks between the special representatives of the two neighboring countries.
They also welcomed the dialogue between senior officials of both countries and discussed recent developments in the region and the international agenda.
In their phone call, Erdoğan and Pashinyan exchanged greetings on the occasion of Qurban Bayram, also known as Eid al-Adha, holiday, and Vardavar (Feast of the Transfiguration).
Erdoğan also extended his condolences to Pashinyan over the recent flood disaster, which killed scores of people in northern Armenia.
Türkiye and Armenia have had no diplomatic or commercial ties for three decades, and the talks are the first attempt to restore links since a 2009 peace accord. That deal was never ratified, and connections have remained tense due to “intricate historical nuances and sensitivities,” namely the 1915 events.
Türkiye, on the events of 1915, says deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties. Türkiye objects to the presentation of the incidents as "genocide," describing them as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.
The issue has been the primary source of strain between Türkiye and Armenia.
But Ankara has been mending ties with several regional countries and has emphasized the need for enhanced cooperation, within this scope steps were also taken with Armenia, particularly following the Karabakh war between Baku and Yerevan.
The sides restored diplomatic contacts in 2021 and in January 2022, special envoys from Ankara and Yerevan began talks to fully restore ties without “preconditions.”
Since then, both Russia and Azerbaijan have voiced support for closer ties between Türkiye and Armenia, which is seen within the sphere of regional normalization but talks have been mostly at a standstill.
The land border between the two neighbors has been closed since 1993, in the wake of clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It was briefly opened in February 2023 to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid following the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye's southeast.
There is already direct air traffic between the countries but the sides last year floated the idea of opening the land borders permanently.
“There is a huge potential in unblocking the border between Armenia and Türkiye,” Armenia’s special representative for the normalization process told Daily Sabah in an exclusive interview earlier this year.
Pointing to the railroad link connecting the two countries, Ruben Rubinyan said Armenia desires opening trade routes and connectivity in the region.
Rubinyan had also ruled out any “outside pressure” to hinder the normalization process and argued, “it is Armenia that is pressuring the international community to facilitate and help us achieve this goal.”
