Turkey weighing reopening land border with Armenia within 6 months

Turkey is considering reopening its land border with Armenia within the next six months, potentially ending the last closed border in Europe dating back to the Cold War and paving the way for renewed trade in the Caucasus, Bloomberg reports, citing sources.

The outlet notes that diplomatic progress with Azerbaijan and the reopening of the border with Turkey could provide a significant boost to PM Nikol Pashinyan ahead of June’s parliamentary elections.

Sources familiar with the warming relations between the countries indicated that if Pashinyan wins the elections, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev could cooperate with him to formalize a peace agreement. Only after that would Turkey appoint an ambassador to Armenia and fully restore diplomatic ties.

Bloomberg also recalls that last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stated that Turkey would not resume relations without a final peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

“If we normalize relations now, we would take away Armenia’s most important incentive to sign a peace agreement,” Fidan said.