Official Ankara has yet to take steps toward implementing an agreement to open the Turkey-Armenia border, Armenia’s special envoy on normalization of relations between the two countries, Ruben Rubinyan, said Tuesday.
Armenia and Turkey decided in 2022 to open their land border to citizens of third countries and diplomatic passport holders, promising at the time that the process would take months. Armenia also contracted the construction of a new checkpoint at Maraga, on the border with Turkey.
Yet Rubinyan told reporters on Tuesday that Armenia expects Turkey to fulfill its end of the agreement, which Ankara has refused.
“On the Armenian side, we have completed all our infrastructural works, the checkpoint is ready for operation. We have not seen any steps towards the implementation of this agreement from the Turkish side, but we hope that this agreement will be implemented,” Rubinyan said.
“Our position: we have an agreement that the land border should be opened for citizens of third countries and diplomatic passport holders, and we expect this agreement to be fulfilled,” added Rubinyan.
Turkish officials, including the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have preconditioned the opening of the Armenia-Turkey border with the signing of a peace deal between Yerevan and Baku. Ankara has also endorsed, and continues to push, Baku’s stated plan to open a land “corridor” through Armenia, connecting Azerbaijan proper with Nakhichevan and thus, Turkey.
When asked whether Ankara has placed preconditions on the fulfilling its end of the agreement, Rubinyan said that he did not want to comment.