Turkish, Armenian Envoys to Meet on July 30 at the Border

YEREVAN — Special Representatives for the normalization process between Armenia and Turkey, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan and Ambassador Serdar Kılıç, will hold their fifth meeting on the Armenian-Turkish border on July 30, the Armenian Foreign Ministry reports.

Their previous meeting was held on July 1, 2022, in Vienna, Austria. At that time, they 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 possible date. They also decided to initiate the necessary processes for this to happen.

Additionally, they agreed to commence direct air cargo trade between Armenia and Turkey as soon as possible and initiated the necessary processes for this.

For over three decades, successive Turkish governments have kept the border closed, demanding a resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan. After several rounds of negotiations in third countries, Kılıç and Rubinyan agreed in July 2022 to open the border for Armenian or Turkish diplomatic passport holders and citizens of third countries.

Rubinyan complained on June 11 that unlike Yerevan, Ankara has taken no steps to implement the agreement. Earlier this year, the Armenian side completed the construction of a new border checkpoint in Margara, a village 40 kilometers southwest of the Armenian capital.