Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is scheduled to maintain talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday as a part of the 2 international locations’ efforts to normalise ties that had been strained over historic disputes and Turkiye’s alliance with Azerbaijan.
The talks between the 2 international locations, which don’t have any formal diplomatic ties, had been anticipated to centre on the doable reopening of their joint border in addition to the battle between Israel and Iran.
Turkiye, a detailed ally of Azerbaijan, shut down its border with Armenia in 1993 in a present of solidarity with Baku, which was locked in a battle with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh area.
In 2020, Turkiye strongly backed Azerbaijan in the six-week battle with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal that noticed Azerbaijan achieve management of a big a part of the area.
Turkiye and Armenia even have a greater than century-old dispute over the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in massacres, deportations and compelled marches that started in 1915 in Ottoman Turkiye.
Historians extensively view the occasion as genocide. Turkiye vehemently rejects the label, conceding that many died in that period however insisting that the loss of life toll is inflated and the deaths resulted from civil unrest.
The rare visit by an Armenian chief comes after Ankara and Yerevan agreed in 2021 to launch efforts towards normalising ties and appointed particular representatives to lead talks.
Pashinyan beforehand visited Turkiye in 2023 when he attended a presidential inauguration ceremony following an election victory by Erdogan. The two have additionally held talks on the sideline of a gathering in Prague in 2022.
It is Ankara and Yerevan’s second try at reconciliation. Turkey and Armenia reached an settlement in 2009 to set up formal relations and to open their border, however the deal was by no means ratified due to sturdy opposition from Azerbaijan.
