Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan held a telephone conversation on Tuesday with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, with whom he discussed the normalization process between their two countries.
Mirzoyan’s call with Fidan comes a week after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held what may be called a ceremonial call with President Recep Yayyip Erdogan of Turkey and discussed, among other issues, the two countries’ commitment to adhering to agreements reached to normalize relations.
According to Armenia’s Foreign Ministry, Mirzoyan and Hakan “discussed issues of continued dialogue between the two countries as well as related to regional developments.”
“The process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey, the implementation of the agreements were touched upon,” the foreign ministry said in its readout of the call.
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.
Despite emphasizing that the normalization process is being advanced “without preconditions,” Turkish officials, including Erdogan, have preconditioned the process on a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan that includes a so-called land “corridor” through Armenia to Nakhichevan. This scheme is being advanced by Baku and has thus far been opposed by Yerevan.
Earlier this month, Ruben Rubinyan, Armenia’s special envoy on Turkey normalizations, said that official Ankara has yet to take steps toward implementing an agreement to open the Turkey-Armenia border.
Rubinyan told reporters on June 11 that Ankara, thus far, has refused to fulfill its end of the agreement.
“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,” Rubinyan added at the time.