Armenian and Turkish Special Envoys Hold Normalization Talks on Joint Border

MARGARA BORDER – Special representatives for the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan and Ambassador Serdar Kılıç, met today at the Turkish-Armenian border, which Ankara has kept closed for over three decades. This marked their first official meeting in two years.

“They reconfirmed the agreements reached at their previous meetings,” the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministries stated in identical press releases. “Furthermore, they agreed to assess the technical requirements to enable the functioning of the Akyaka/Akhurik railroad border gate in line with regional developments, as well as to simplify mutual visa procedures for diplomatic and official passport holders.”

The statements added, “Finally, they reemphasized their agreement to continue the normalization process without any preconditions towards achieving the ultimate goal of full normalization between their respective countries.”

Kılıç and Rubinyan reached earlier agreements after four rounds of negotiations held in 2022. One agreement called for the opening of the border for Armenian and Turkish diplomatic passport holders, as well as citizens of third countries. However, Ankara appears to have been delaying the implementation of that agreement. The official readouts of Kılıç’s latest talks with Rubinyan gave no indication that the partial opening of the Turkish-Armenian border is imminent.

Recently, the Armenian authorities announced the completion of the modernization of the ‘Margara’ customs checkpoint, which cost an estimated 1 billion Armenian drams.

At their previous meeting on July 1, 2022, in Vienna, Austria, Rubinyan and Kılıç agreed to enable the crossing of the land border between Armenia and Turkey by third-country citizens visiting Armenia and Turkey respectively, at the earliest date possible, and decided to initiate the necessary process to that end. They also agreed on commencing direct air cargo trade between Armenia and Turkey at the earliest possible date and decided to initiate the necessary process to that effect.

Furthermore, they discussed other possible concrete steps towards achieving the ultimate goal of full normalization between their respective countries.