Ankara: As part of Turkey’s normalization efforts with its former enemies, its Foreign Minister Mevlut Kavusoglu announced during a speech to parliament on December 13 that Turkey and Armenia would appoint special envoys to mend broken relations. . have agreed to do.
After more than three decades with a closed land border, which forced Armenia to use the Georgian and Iranian borders to access the world, charter flights between Yerevan and Istanbul will now resume.
Richard Girgosyan, director of the Yerevan-based think tank’s Center for Regional Studies, said the announcement – which is seen as Turkey’s first step in supporting “normalization” with Armenia – sparked several months of positive relations between Yerevan and Ankara. gave birth to relationships. statements follow.
Since the summer, the two countries have exchanged positive signals on the diplomatic front, with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan saying on 27 August that he was responding with steps similar to the positive public signals coming from Ankara. Was.
Two days later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could work to gradually normalize relations with Armenia.
Speaking during a meeting of the country’s leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States on 15 October, Pashinyan affirmed that normalizing relations with Turkey would help establish lasting regional peace and implement the agreements reached last year on the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis. will gain help in. will contribute.
Relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been tense for three decades over the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, an area occupied by the Armenian military but internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.
Last year the 44-day war over key territory changed the territorial count with the defeat of Armenia, which returned the occupied territories to Azerbaijan. With this move, the main reason Ankara closed its borders with Armenia became irrelevant.
Turkey is expected to take normalization steps with Armenia in coordination with Azerbaijan. But to what extent Russia will be involved in the process or play a spoiler role, is still unclear.
“This is important for several reasons,” Girgosian told Arab News, “first, the process of normalization, which lays the basis for final reconciliation, part of a wider post-war effort to restore regional trade and transport in the South. is. . part. Caucasus region. “
The two countries signed a landmark peace agreement known as the “Zurich Protocol” in 2009 to establish diplomatic relations and reopen the joint border, but they were never ratified, as their relations were strained. Remained because Turkey had placed a condition of the agreement. On the return of Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh.
Girgosyan believes that the return of diplomatic engagement between Turkey and Armenia provides a rare breakthrough in Turkish foreign policy and positive developments in Turkey after months of political instability and economic crisis.
“And it is also a component of a more ambitious Turkish effort to ally with Israel, the United Arab Emirates and others,” he said.
Since Turkey has been excluded by Moscow in post-war regional arrangements because it was sidelined in the Russia-Armenia-Azerbaijan Working Group on Reopening Transport Links, these normalization talks will put Turkey on the table. Experts also noted.
According to Nigar Goksel, Turkish Director of International Crisis Group, Turkey and Armenia, the decision to appoint special representatives is an important positive first step in what is likely to be an incremental normalization process.
“Ankara will navigate delicately to ensure that Baku is on board at every step as it progresses negotiations with Yerevan,” she told Arab News.
But Goksel thinks Russia will also be involved in the process.
During a press briefing on 25 November, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow was ready to mediate efforts to improve relations between Armenia and Turkey.
“Turkey would like to ensure that regional stakeholders are not encouraged to act as spoilers. So I think regional transport and economic integration will be a central focus, because it is in the interest of all parties. People-to-people reconciliation is likely in the long term based on regional integration,” said Goksel.
The agreement that ended the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020 included “unblocking regional economic and transport links” in the region, sparking debate over the possibilities of opening up regional transport links.
Although a welcome step, Girgosyan thinks it is the first step towards minimal ties between the neighbours: the reopening of the closed border and the establishment of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia.
“Nevertheless, it reflects the beginning of a return to diplomacy in 2020 following unprecedented Turkish military support for Azerbaijan’s war on Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as a new environment more conducive to de-escalation and post-war stability ” ,” They said.