Handan Kazanci
01 July 2022•Update: 02 July 2022
ISTANBUL
Turkish and Armenian officials have agreed to open the land border for third country citizens visiting both countries as soon as possible, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
Envoys for the normalization process between Ankara and Yerevan “agreed to enable the crossing of the land border between Türkiye and Armenia by third country citizens visiting Türkiye and Armenia respectively at the earliest date possible and decided to initiate the necessary process to that end,” the ministry said in a statement.
Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kilic and Armenian National Assembly Deputy Speaker Ruben Rubinyan, special representatives for the normalization, held their fourth meeting in Vienna, Austria’s capital.
“They also agreed on commencing direct air cargo trade between Türkiye and Armenia at the earliest possible date and decided to initiate the necessary process to that effect,” the statement said.
The Turkish and Armenian officials also “discussed other possible concrete steps that can be undertaken towards achieving the ultimate goal of full normalization between their respective countries,” it added.
“Finally they reemphasized their agreement to continue the normalization process without preconditions,” the statement said.
The first round of normalization talks was held in Moscow on Jan. 14, where both parties agreed to continue negotiations without any preconditions, according to a statement released after the meeting.
Turkish and Armenian envoys met for the second time in Vienna on Feb. 24, and the third meeting was held on May 3 in the Austrian capital.
Also, a historic bilateral meeting took place between the foreign ministers of Türkiye and Armenia on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on March 12.
As part of the efforts, Türkiye and Armenia have also resumed commercial flights as of Feb. 2 after a two-year hiatus.
The two countries have been divided on a range of issues, including Armenia’s occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, and 1915 events during the Ottoman Empire era, and the border between the two neighboring countries has been closed since 1993.
