Turkey and Armenia are launching historic talks in Moscow for the normalization of ties and the opening of the sealed border three decades after it was shut.
The special envoys of the two countries will hold their first meeting on Jan. 14 to set a road map for reconciliation with the objective of creating an environment for diplomatic, social and economic ties.
Turkey’s special envoy Ambassador Serdar Kılıç and Armenia’s special envoy, deputy parliamentary speaker Ruben Rubinyan, will meet in Moscow after mutual warm exchanges between the leaders of the two nations, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Ankara and Yerevan had reached an agreement in 2009 under the Swiss mediation to establish formal relations and to open their joint border, but the agreement was never ratified because of opposition from Azerbaijan. This time around, however, the reconciliation efforts have Azerbaijan’s blessing and Turkish officials have said Ankara would “coordinate” the normalization process with Azerbaijan, which liberated its territories from Armenian occupation in 2020.
Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, shut down its border with Armenia in 1993, in a show of solidarity with Baku, which was locked in a conflict with Armenia over the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Moscow backs talks
Although the first meeting will take place in Moscow, Turkey says it wants direct talks with Armenia without the mediation of third parties. The special representatives will decide whether they will continue to meet in Moscow or change the venue in their first meeting.
The decision to launch talks between Turkey and Armenia has received the backing of Russia, the United States and France, the Minsk Group, as well as other leading Western nations and international organizations.
Confidence-building measures
In the meantime, in a bid to support the normalization efforts, Turkey and Armenia have taken confidence-building measures. Charter flights between the two countries will be launched in early February and Armenia has lifted an embargo on Turkish goods.
The talks are believed to open a new window of opportunity for the two nations by paving the way for an extensive trade through the opened border.
The fact that the two special envoys are launching a new period between the two nations, a rare ray of hope is shining across the snow-capped mountains towering over Turkey’s northeastern edge, the AFP reported. For the economically starved locals of the Turkish frontier town of Akyaka, these talks could not have come soon enough.
“Since the border was shut in 1993, our region has become the country’s blind spot, locked on all sides,” said Engin Yildirim, director of the Akyaka traders’ association. “The border is our only window to the world.”
Locals now refer to the Akyaka train stop, built out of black basalt, as the “station of nostalgia” — a memory of the days when trains criss-crossed in both directions, bringing the scenic region tourism and trade.
Yildirim said the locals are closely following the diplomatic moves. “Our government is in favor of reopening the border and I believe the Armenians are too,” he said. “We have no problem with the Armenians, and they have no problem with us.”
‘Time to live in peace’
The remote region’s shop owners recall a time when Armenians would come across the border and gobble up their goods.
“We did a brisk business with the Armenians,” said Hussein Kanik, a shop owner in the nearby province of Kars, which specializes in various types of cheese. In the Soviet era, “they would arrive with furs and samovars and returned with our products… We are soon going back to those days,” he said with joyful hope.
In front of his 19th-century hotel, which once housed the elite of tsarist Russia, Gaffar Demir also bet on peace, saying the current state of affairs made no sense. “We have a road, a railroad, but no relations with the Armenians,” he complained.
“For everyone, it is time to live in peace,” he said.
Hurriyet Daily News