When will Turkey-Armeni̇a border be opened?

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır MP Garo Paylan has submitted a Parliamentary question to Vice President Fuat Oktay regarding Turkey-Armeni̇a relations amid the calls of Armeni̇a's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for normalization between the countries.

Paylan has recalled that "even though Turkey was the first country to recognize Armeni̇a's independence in 1991, it has closed its borders with Armeni̇a and suspended the diplomatic and political relations with the country since 1993 due to the Karabakh War."

Paylan has said, "After 1993, the political power holders have conditioned the normalization of relations with Armeni̇a with Armeni̇a's withdrawal from the territory of Azerbaijan that it was holding."

HDP MP Paylan has reminded the Vice President that "with the truce following the Karabakh War, the Armenian forces have withdrawn from the territories that they were controlling for decades."

Questions of Paylan

As indicated by the MP, in the recent period, both President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Armeni̇a's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan have made statements about the normalization of relations between Armeni̇a and Turkey.

In this context, Paylan has asked Oktay;

• What course of action will you follow in normalizing the relations with Armeni̇a?
• When will you open our border gate with Armeni̇a?
• When will you start diplomatic relations with Armeni̇a?
• What steps will you take to build trust relationship with Armeni̇a?
• Have contacts begun between Turkey and Armeni̇a to enable land and railway transportation?
• Will you make any attempts to start direct flights between Turkey and Armeni̇a?

Protocols signed in 2009

To develop the relations between Turkey and Armeni̇a, the "Protocol on the Development of Bilateral Relations" was signed by Turkey's the then Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Armeni̇a's the then Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbantyan on October 11, 2009.

Signed in Zurich in Switzerland, the "Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations" foresaw that the two states would recognize each other's borders. But no progress was made and protocols became invalid. (PT/SD)