Turkey and Armenia resume talks, marking historic diplomatic breakthrough

Pundits describe the move as a historic breakthrough

Originally published on Global Voices

Turkish and Armenian representatives met at their shared border on July 30 to discuss visas for diplomatic passport holders and transportation routes in what Turkish pundits describe as a historic breakthrough. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 during the first Karabakh war in a show of solidarity with its long-time ally Azerbaijan. Since then, ties between Turkey and Armenia have remained strained.

This was the fifth meeting between the two sides following diplomatic phone calls in June 2024 between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and their respective Foreign Ministers.

First meeting in a long time amid Armenia's increased hopes for Turkey to open the border for foreign citizens — a decision agreed upon two years ago but never implemented. https://t.co/rLkTIJ3KDi

— Olesya Vartanyan (@Olesya_vArt) July 29, 2024

Journalist Sam Martirosyan wrote on X, about the importance of the meeting given the leaders had not met since diplomatic talks began in 2022:

The last time they met in Vienna, they agreed to open land crossing for third country citizens visiting Armenia and Turkey ‘at the earliest date possible.’ Despite the agreement, the land crossing remained closed since Turkey tacticly backed out of it. Two days ago [Armenian Prime Minister Nikol] Pashinyan visited the Margara checkpoint on the Armenian side, which has been renovated and modernized.

The historic moment of the border opening between #Turkey and #Armenia is approaching. In the video, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is inspecting the fully prepared “Margara” customs checkpoint at the border with Turkey. When it opens, it will be a significant event, as… pic.twitter.com/lXATrQhz1p

— JAMnews (@JAMnewsCaucasus) July 26, 2024

In her 2022 commentary for the International Crisis Group (ICG), Olesya Vartanyan, the Senior Analyst for South Caucasus at ICG, wrote on the importance of this potential border opening.

Armenia is landlocked. Its two longest borders — with Türkiye to the west and Azerbaijan to the east and south — are both closed due to its poor relations with those countries. Its other neighbour to the south is Iran, which is hamstrung by Western sanctions. Most of its trade passes across the northern frontier with Georgia […] An open border would turn dead-end Margara, which has a population of fewer than 1,000, into a key transport node in Armenia: it is only 35km from the capital Yerevan, and around half that distance from the Turkish town of Iğdır, a crossroads near Iran and Azerbaijan.

The two countries were close to finding some common ground in 2008 after representatives from each nation met in Zurich and agreed to a series of protocols designed to normalize relations between them.

Following the meeting, Turkey's then-President Abdullah Gul traveled to Yerevan, Armenia's capital, to watch the first of the two qualifying World Cup matches between Turkey and Armenia. A year later, the then-president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, traveled to Turkey's province of Bursa to watch another football game between the two national teams. These visits were described at the time as “football diplomacy.”

The negotiations eventually fell through after Turkey withdrew due to mounting pressure from Azerbaijan. Armenia formally declared the protocols null and void in 2018.

The second Karabakh War in 2020 changed Turkey's view on its ties with Armenia. Erdoğan signaled Turkey's interest in renewing relations in December 2020 during a visit to Azerbaijan, where the President said, “If positive steps are taken in this regard, we will open our closed doors.” A month later, an unnamed senior Erdoğan advisor told Turkish journalist Asli Aydintasbas that Ankara was ready to “normalize relations with Armenia.”

Over the following months, there were a series of positive diplomatic signs between Turkey and Armenia, including a five-year action plan approved by Armenian legislators in August 2021, stating that Armenia was “ready to make efforts to normalize relations with Turkey.”

Next came announcements of mutually appointed envoys, and the resumption of charter flights between Istanbul and Yerevan. When Armenia sent humanitarian aid to Turkey via the long-closed border, Serdar Kılıç, who was appointed as Ankara's envoy to Armenia, thanked the people of Armenia in a tweet:

Thank you dear @VahanKostanyan thank you dear @RubenRubinyan for your kind efforts to make this happen. I will always remember the generous aid sent by the people of Armenia to help alleviate the sufferings of our people in the eartquake striken region in Türkiye. https://t.co/4Q6PHOhsVj pic.twitter.com/NNU7r0FLow

— Serdar KILIÇ (@serdarkilic9) February 11, 2023

Similarly, during the meeting between Foreign Ministers on February 15, 2023, Çavuşoğlu also thanked Armenia for the help. “Armenia extended a hand of friendship to our people in these difficult times, showing solidarity and cooperation,” said Çavuşoğlu in a joint press conference after the meeting. Mirzoyan added, “By being in Turkey at this difficult moment, I would like to reaffirm the readiness and willingness of the Republic of Armenia to build peace in the region, especially for the full normalization of relations with Turkey, the establishment of diplomatic relations and the full opening of the border between Armenia and Turkey.”

The recent meeting between Armenia's special representative in the normalization process with Turkey and the Armenian parliament Deputy Speaker Ruben Rubinyan and his counterpart from Turkey, Serdar Kılıç reiterated previous commitments to open their borders for third-country nationals and diplomatic passport holders, something the two countries have been discussing since the talks resumed in 2021.

Rubinyan also tweeted, that the sides “agreed on new confidence-building measures, including assessing the technical requirements to enable the functioning of the railroad connection between our countries.”

A post-meeting statement issued by Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, read, “[Rubinyan and Kılıç] reemphasized their agreement to continue the normalization process without any preconditions towards achieving the ultimate goal of full normalization between their respective countries.”

However, the normalization of ties between Turkey and Armenia continues to rely on the progress achieved in peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The two countries have made some progress on that front however, the deal is yet to be signed. Speaking on July 30th at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC, Elchin Amirbayov, the representative of the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan on special assignments, said, “We have never been as close to a [peace deal]” and that “we hope that the remaining difficulties will be addressed properly in the short period of time and that we can attain a credible, endurable, and irreversible peace.”

Amirbayov also noted that the only remaining point of dispute is Armenia's constitution which contains text on “territorial claims to Azerbaijan.” He added:

[Azerbaijan] cannot go ahead and sign the peace deal [while] turning a blind eye to the very existential reason of this conflict and that is the fact that Armenia had territorial claims to us, and these claims are still valid in accordance with their constitutional legal framework. So the sooner that issue is addressed, the sooner we will get to the final phase.

Written by Arzu Geybullayeva