Turkey Places Preconditions to Open the border with Armenia

Turkey continued to hammer preconditions for normalization of relations with Armenia, despite a commitment from the two countries, emphasized as recently as Tuesday, that the talks should progress without preconditions.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Thursday that his country will open its border with Armenia if Yerevan negotiates a peace agreement with Baku—one that is favorable and acceptable to Azerbaijan.

“Meetings between Armenia and Azerbaijan continue, and we must prepare our scenario in case of the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations,” Fidan told the Turkish daily Sabah on Thursday.

“The work in that direction continues. We could implement the positive scenario; that is, open the border with Armenia.”

The statement comes two days after Armenian and Turkish special envoys resumed stalled talks Tuesday. The the representatives, Ruben Rubinyan and Serdar Kilic, reaffirmed their country’s commitment to continuing the talks without preconditions and explored the possibility of restoring a rail link on the border of the two countries.

Identical statements issued by Yerevan and Ankara on Tuesday following the envoys’ meeting said that “they reemphasized their agreement to continue the normalization process without any preconditions towards achieving the ultimate goal of full normalization between their respective countries.”

Despite this, the Turkish government, and its head, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have set preconditions and have pressured Armenia to agree to an Azerbaijani proposal to open a “corridor” through Armenia to Nakhichevan. As recently as last month, Erdogan reaffirmed this precondition.

In July, 2022, the last time Rubinyan and Kilic held talks on normalization of ties, Yerevan and Ankara agreed to open the border to holders of Armenian and Turkish diplomatic passports, as well as citizens of third countries.

To this end, the Armenian government, earlier this year, completed the renovation of the Margara border crossing point, where Rubinyan and Kilic reportedly met on Tuesday.

Armenia’s State Revenue Chair Rustam Badasyan said Thursday that the Margara checkpoint is ready and operational.

“The Margara checkpoint has long been ready to serve citizens of third countries and diplomatic passport holders,” Badasyan said at a press briefing on Thursday, the same day Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister, continued to insist on preconditions.

Asked when the checkpoint will be opened, he said, “I don’t know. There must be a political decision.”