Armenia, Turkey Move to Ease Decades of Enmity at Talks on Ties
- Sides hold ‘constructive’ meeting on normalizing relations
- Initiative follows 2020 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan
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The success of talks that began Friday in Moscow to normalize ties between Armenia and Turkey can be measured in the distant village of Margara, where people live next to Europe’s last Cold War-era closed border.
Its 1,500 Armenian residents are separated from Turkey by a narrow bridge across the Arax River that’s been sealed for decades by barbed-wire fencing, bar a brief period after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. The fresh attempt by the longtime foes to overcome more than a century of enmity and open the border stirs mixed emotions here.