Türkiye, Armenia agree to allow border crossing for visiting 3rd country citizens

ANKARA

Turkish and Armenian officials have agreed to open the land border for third country citizens visiting both countries as soon as possible, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on July 1. 

Envoys for the normalization process between Ankara and Yerevan “agreed to enable the crossing of the land border between Türkiye and Armenia by third country citizens visiting Türkiye and Armenia respectively at the earliest date possible and decided to initiate the necessary process to that end,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The fourth meeting of the Special Representatives for the normalization process between Türkiye and Armenia, Ambassador Serdar Kılıç and Deputy Speaker Ruben Rubinyan, took place in Vienna on July 1.

Apart from the first meeting that took place in February in Moscow, the Turkish and Armenian special envoys chose to meet in Vienna for the continuation of the joint efforts to establish diplomatic ties between the two nations.

Türkiye and Armenia have not established diplomatic ties since the early 1990s after the latter gained independence. Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani territories in Nagorno-Karabakh was the primary reason for Türkiye’s sealing of the borders with Armenia and not establishing normal ties with it.

In the first three rounds, the special representatives exchanged views on possible concrete steps that could be mutually taken to that end and reiterated their agreement to continue the process without preconditions.

The normalization process aims to allow the establishment of diplomatic ties, the opening of sealed borders, and starting of economic, trade and transportation projects between the two nations. As part of the confidence-building measures, Türkiye and Armenia resumed charter flights between Istanbul and Yerevan, while Armenia lifted an embargo on Turkish goods.

Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mizroyan came to Türkiye in March to attend the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, where he held a bilateral meeting with Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.