“Meetings between Armenia and Azerbaijan continue, and we must prepare our scenario in case of the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations,” Fidan told the Turkish daily Sabah. “The work in that direction continues. We could implement the positive scenario; that is, open the border with Armenia.”
Ankara has for decades made the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border and establishment of diplomatic relations with Yerevan conditional on a resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict acceptable to Baku. Turkish leaders stuck to this condition even after the start of normalization talks with the current Armenian government in early 2022. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated last month the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace deal should call for a land corridor through Armenia to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave.
Turkish and Armenian special envoys resumed those talks on Tuesday following a two-year hiatus. They agreed to explore the possibility of restoring a rail link the two neighboring states that has not functioned since 1993, the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries said in identical statements.
The statements said nothing about time frames for the implementation of an agreement reached by Armenian parliament vice-speaker Ruben Rubinian and senior Turkish diplomat Serdar Kilic in July 2022. The agreement called for the opening of the border for Armenian and Turkish diplomatic passport holders as well as citizens of third countries. Rubinian complained in June that the Turkish side has taken no steps to implement it.
In a post on the X social media platform, Rubinian described his latest meeting with Kilic as “good.” The Turkish negotiator wrote, for his part, that the meeting held on the Turkish-Armenian border was “constructive.”
