Nikol Pashinyan’s go to marks Ankara and Yerevan’s second try at reconciliation.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is on a uncommon go to to Istanbul to carry talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in what Yerevan has described as a “historic” step in direction of regional peace.
The go to types a part of the 2 international locations’ efforts to normalise ties strained over historic disputes and Ankara’s alliance with Azerbaijan, which has been in a long-simmering battle with Armenia.
“This can be a historic go to, as it will likely be the primary time a head of the Republic of Armenia visits Turkiye at this degree. All regional points shall be mentioned,” Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonyan instructed reporters on Friday. “The dangers of conflict [with Azerbaijan] are at the moment minimal, and we should work to neutralise them. Pashinyan’s go to to Turkiye is a step in that course.”
Pashinyan’s go to comes a day after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks in Turkiye with Erdogan, throughout which he praised the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance as “a major issue, not solely regionally but additionally globally”, and Erdogan reiterated his assist for “the institution of peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia”.
Baku and Yerevan agreed on the textual content of a peace deal in March, however Baku has since outlined a bunch of calls for, together with modifications to Armenia’s structure, that it desires met earlier than it’ll signal the doc.
Pashinyan is scheduled to satisfy Erdogan at Istanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace at 15:00 GMT, Erdogan’s workplace mentioned.
An Armenian Ministry of Overseas Affairs official instructed the AFP information company that the pair will talk about efforts to signal a complete peace treaty.
The regional fallout from the Israel-Iran battle, which started final Friday when Israel launched a number of waves of air strikes focusing on Iran’s nuclear services and army websites, may also be mentioned.
Armenia and Turkiye have by no means established formal diplomatic ties, and their shared border has been closed since 1993.
Makes an attempt at normalisation
Relations between the 2 nations have been traditionally strained over the World Battle I-era mass killings of Armenians within the Ottoman Empire – atrocities historians and Yerevan say quantity to genocide. Turkiye rejects the label, contending that whereas many individuals died in that period, the demise toll is inflated and the deaths resulted from civil unrest.
Ankara has additionally backed its shut ally, Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, within the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh battle with Armenia. This area, which had a principally ethnic Armenian inhabitants on the time, broke away from Azerbaijan with assist from Armenia within the late Nineteen Eighties. In 2020, Turkiye backed Azerbaijan in its second conflict with Armenia, which ended after six weeks with a Russia-brokered peace deal that noticed Azerbaijan acquire management of a major a part of the area.
Pashinyan has actively sought to normalise relations with each Baku and Ankara.
Ankara and Yerevan appointed particular envoys in late 2021 to steer a normalisation course of, and resumed business flights in 2022 after a two-year pause.
Earlier this yr, Pashinyan introduced Armenia would halt its marketing campaign for worldwide recognition of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as genocide – a serious concession to Turkiye that sparked widespread criticism at residence.
Pashinyan’s first go to to Turkiye was to attend Erdogan’s inauguration in 2023.
That is Ankara and Yerevan’s second try at reconciliation. Turkiye and Armenia reached an settlement in 2009 to ascertain formal relations and open their shared border, however the deal was by no means ratified due to sturdy opposition from Azerbaijan.