“Welcome to Armenia,” the pilot’s voice came over the tannoy as the Turkish Atlasjet flight touched down in Yerevan some time in 2011. “The temperature outside is…” A normal announcement on any flight. This one, however, came in Turkish before being repeated in English. In Armenia.
The prospect of peace in the South Caucasus may finally be within reach. Following the high-profile meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the White House as facilitated by U.S. President Donald Trump on 8 August, hopes are rising that Yerevan and Baku could soon sign a long-anticipated peace treaty.
Earlier this month I was briefly interviewed by Nazrin Babayeva from Report.Az. It was published in two parts so included below is the full text in whole.
As peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan appear to be making some progress, the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations have begun to gain more traction. In April, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan described any breakthrough as “epoch-making” for the region. Toivo Klaar, EU special representative for the South Caucasus and Crisis in Georgia, told media he hoped talks would continue in the near future.
On 1-3 March, Antalya held its annual Diplomacy Forum, with significant focus placed on peace in the South Caucasus and the normalization of Armenia’s relations with Azerbaijan and Türkiye.
The Caspian Post last week published my first piece on what can be hoped are real and genuine efforts to accelerate the latest efforts to normalise relations between Yerevan and Ankara following the recent and devastating earthquake in Turkey. During the last attempt to establish diplomatic relations in the late 2000s I covered that process extensively, including working with the BBC, Al Jazeera English, and The Wall Street Journal on various stories. Looks like I’ll now be doing the same throughout 2023.
In what could possibly prove to be a milestone in relations between the Republics of Armenia and Turkey, Yerevan today sent five trucks carrying 100 tons of humanitarian assistance to its neighbour following last week’s devastating earthquake. The aid was destined for the southeastern Turkish city of Adiyaman.
At time of writing, the number of fatalities from the tragedy, which reached a magnitude of 7.8, has already surpassed 21,000 with over 80,000 injured. A state of emergency in Turkey has been declared.
Though it had been announced in early December that direct cargo flights would start between Armenia and Turkey by the end of last year, the apparent deadlock in the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process, as well as the impasse between Yerevan, Baku, and Stepanakert on the Lachin Corridor, hardly prepared anyone for such an eventuality. However, a news report published by the Andalou News Agency on 6 January 2023 confirmed that Ankara had indeed given the go-ahead for such flights starting 1 January.
While not necessarily a historic moment, the resumption of direct flights between Yerevan and Turkey are a welcome development, especially following the 2020 Karabakh war. Though not new for both countries, this reconnection is largely been seen as part of post-war attempts to unblock regional economic and transport links as part of the 2020 November ceasefire agreement and a resulting, renewed attempt to normalise Armenia-Turkey relations.