Turkey Weighs Opening Armenia Border That’s Shut Since the 90s
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey won’t resume ties without a final peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Photographer: Markku Ulander/AFP/Getty ImagesTurkey is considering reopening its land border with Armenia in the next six months, according to people familiar with the matter, doing away with Europe’s last closed frontier of the Cold War-era and paving the way to revived trade in the Caucasus.
Turkey shut the border in 1993 in solidarity with ally Azerbaijan in the war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. The landlocked mountainous region in the South Caucasus broke away from Azerbaijan soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, triggering decades of conflict. Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump signed a joint peace declaration with the leaders of Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan, seeking to end the conflict.