PM Pashinyan: Armenian and Turkish Government Agency to Cooperate to Implement Border Crossing Agreements

YEREVAN — Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told Armenian government agencies on Thursday to closely cooperate with their Turkish counterparts for implementing as soon as possible an agreement to open the Turkish-Armenian border to citizens of third countries.

Special envoys of Armenia and Turkey reached the agreement in Vienna last week during a fourth round of negotiations on normalizing relations between the two neighboring states.

The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries said after the talks that “third-country citizens visiting Armenia and Turkey” will be allowed to cross the land border “at the earliest date possible.” They said the two sides also agreed to launch “direct air cargo trade between Armenia and Turkey.”

“It is now very important that our agencies work with relevant Turkish agencies because the implementation of the political agreements depends on that work,” Pashinyan said at a weekly cabinet meeting in Yerevan. “So my order is that we work in a coordinated way so that we implement the agreements reached as soon as possible.”

Pashinyan did not give any time frames for what would be the first step towards the opening of the border which Turkey has for decades kept closed. Nor did he specify administrative and logistical measures that need to be taken for that purpose.

The Armenian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures, which deals with transport-related issues, did not immediately comment on those steps. Armenia and Turkey do not have diplomatic ties.