Onnik James Krikorian
Following the meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the White House on August 8, there are hopes that Yerevan and Baku are close to signing a long-anticipated peace treaty.
Armenia and Türkiye have been making progress as the two special envoys for normalizing relations met in Yerevan on September 12. Armenia–Türkiye normalization efforts are believed to be linked to Armenia–Azerbaijan.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said he anticipated that the peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan would be signed in the first half of next year, stating that normalization between Armenia and Türkiye would happen soon after.
Against the backdrop of reported progress in normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, there has been similarly positive news in normalizing relations between Armenia and Türkiye (see EDM, August 12). On September 12, former Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic, now the country’s special envoy for normalizing relations, traveled across one of two unused border points into Armenia to meet his Armenian counterpart, National Assembly Deputy Speaker Ruben Rubinyan (Azatutyun, September 12). The last time the two men met was in July last year on the border itself (Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, July 30, 2024; OBCT, August 1, 2024).
The two diplomats have been involved in the process since first meeting for talks in Moscow in January 2022 (Eurasianet, January 14, 2022). In March 2024, Kilic had expressed hopes that he could meet Rubinyan in Yerevan (News.am, March 1, 2024). In the identical one-page communique released following the latest meeting, it was noted that the normalization process would continue to be advanced, including the restoration of the railway line between Kars in Türkiye and Gyumri in Armenia, as well as a 2022 undertaking to open the land border for diplomats and third-country citizens. There were also other proposed activities in the area of education and additional flights (Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, September 12).
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