Türkiye, Armenia hold talks on border, transport, and cultural ties in normalization efforts

Türkiye's special representative for the normalization process, retired Ambassador Serdar Kilic, and his Armenian counterpart, Deputy Parliament Ruben Rubinyan, met for a sixth round of talks on Friday.

During the meeting in Armenia's capital Yerevan, they reiterated their commitment to pursue the normalization process "without preconditions" and agreed to accelerate the process to implement an agreement on border crossings between the two countries, according to a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement.

The two confirmed the issues agreed upon in their previous discussions, which aimed to advance the full normalization process between the two countries.

Kilic and Rubinyan exchanged views on implementation of the agreement on border crossings, which was reached at a meeting in July 2022.

They also decided that the relevant authorities in both countries would carry out the necessary technical work for the rehabilitation and reactivation of the Kars-Gyumri railway and the electricity interconnector.

They further agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fields of culture and academia, in particular by creating scholarship opportunities for higher education students and through joint restoration of the historic Silk Road (Ani) Bridge.

Additionally, Kilic and Rubinyan reached an understanding to undertake the necessary work to enable other interested airlines to launch flights to various destinations starting next summer, thereby increasing air travel and the number of flights between the neighboring countries.