The U.S. State Department reaffirmed strong support for the normalization process in response to the first-ever phone call between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian that took place on Monday.
“The Armenian-Turkish dialogue has the potential to increase regional stability, curb adverse influences and lead to greater economic development that is beneficial to all,” the Armenian Service of the Voice of America quoted the department as saying on Wednesday.
Andrea Wiktorin, the head of the EU Delegation in Yerevan, on Friday described Pashinian’s call with Erdogan as a “very important step.”
“I hope that it will really lead to a normalization process that will benefit both countries,” Wiktorin told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“We are ready to continue to accompany the Armenian-Turkish dialogue, providing it with all kinds of assistance,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said for her part. “We believe that this is in the interests of stability and economic prosperity in the region.”
Speaking at a news briefing on Thursday, Zakharova emphasized the fact that the first round of Turkish-Armenian normalization talks took place in Moscow on January 14.
Special envoys of the two neighboring states met for three more times in Vienna in the following months. Their last meeting held on July 1 was followed by an announcement that Ankara and Yerevan will open the Turkish-Armenian border to citizens of third countries and allow mutual cargo shipments by air “at the earliest date possible.”
The Armenian negotiator, Ruben Rubinian, expressed hope on Tuesday that the Turkish side will implement these agreements “in the coming months.”
Ankara has for decades made the opening of the border and establishment of diplomatic relations with Yerevan conditional on a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.
