Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan arrived in Istanbul on Friday, June 20, for a rare visit to arch-foe Turkey, in what Yerevan has described as a “historic” step toward regional peace. Armenia and Turkey have never established formal diplomatic ties, and their shared border has been closed since the 1990s.
“Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has arrived in Turkey on a working visit,” his spokesperson Nazeli Baghdasaryan wrote on Facebook. The visit follows an invitation from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom Pashinyan is scheduled to meet at Istanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace in the afternoon, Erdogan’s office said.
Relations between the two nations have been historically strained over the Armenian genocide, a label Ankara rejects. Ankara has also backed its close ally, Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, in its long-running conflict with Armenia.
Relations between the two nations have been historically strained over the genocide perpetrated against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923 – a step in that direction.”
An Armenian foreign ministry official told Agence France-Presse the pair will discuss efforts to sign a comprehensive peace treaty as well as the regional fallout from the Iran-Israel conflict. On Thursday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was in Turkey for talks with Erdogan and praised the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance as “a significant factor, not only regionally but also globally.” Erdogan repeated his backing for “the establishment of peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
Baku and Yerevan agreed on the text of a peace deal in March, but Baku has since outlined a host of demands − including changes to Armenia’s constitution − before it will sign the document.
