Turkish President Erdogan receives Armenian premier in US for talks

WASHINGTON

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday received Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the US for talks.

The closed-door meeting at the Turkish House came on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

No further information was shared about the meeting.

Türkiye recognized Armenia in 1991 following its declaration of independence. However, Ankara severed diplomatic and commercial relations with Yerevan in 1993 amid the First Karabakh War, which began with Armenia’s attacks on Azerbaijan.

After the Second Karabakh War ended in 2020, Ankara and Yerevan mutually appointed special representatives in 2021 to normalize ties.

After a series of meetings between Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic and Armenia’s National Assembly Deputy Speaker Ruben Rubinyan, direct flights restarted in February 2022 and it was agreed to open the Türkiye-Armenia border for citizens of third countries and to commence air cargo trade between the two countries that July.

This July, the special representatives held their fifth meeting at the countries’ Alican-Margara border crossing and reaffirmed a commitment to pursue the normalization process "without preconditions."