Zürcher Nachrichten - Armenia PM to meet Erdogan on 'historic' Turkey visit

EUR -
AED 4.26841
AFN 80.362394
ALL 97.542216
AMD 446.735356
ANG 2.080099
AOA 1065.794205
ARS 1494.414015
AUD 1.776887
AWG 2.092071
AZN 1.980459
BAM 1.954642
BBD 2.348809
BDT 141.226338
BGN 1.956132
BHD 0.43854
BIF 3466.946195
BMD 1.162261
BND 1.493215
BOB 8.038238
BRL 6.486005
BSD 1.163311
BTN 100.147673
BWP 15.618748
BYN 3.807045
BYR 22780.325028
BZD 2.336716
CAD 1.596076
CDF 3354.287055
CHF 0.932807
CLF 0.029182
CLP 1120.296341
CNY 8.342655
CNH 8.346165
COP 4674.330945
CRC 587.052233
CUC 1.162261
CUP 30.799929
CVE 110.199718
CZK 24.634179
DJF 206.947405
DKK 7.463699
DOP 70.258379
DZD 151.514244
EGP 57.439973
ERN 17.433922
ETB 161.636047
FJD 2.620788
FKP 0.864949
GBP 0.866519
GEL 3.150183
GGP 0.864949
GHS 12.127816
GIP 0.864949
GMD 83.106172
GNF 10094.020343
GTQ 8.931709
GYD 243.385819
HKD 9.121487
HNL 30.445964
HRK 7.532663
HTG 152.739518
HUF 398.923459
IDR 18977.696027
ILS 3.908598
IMP 0.864949
INR 100.127437
IQD 1523.897249
IRR 48945.741055
ISK 142.354235
JEP 0.864949
JMD 186.029797
JOD 0.824089
JPY 172.932309
KES 150.300962
KGS 101.640213
KHR 4662.238109
KMF 491.989694
KPW 1046.046309
KRW 1616.942576
KWD 0.355234
KYD 0.969426
KZT 620.152624
LAK 25087.138481
LBP 104232.653
LKR 350.972086
LRD 233.241828
LSL 20.596898
LTL 3.431856
LVL 0.703041
LYD 6.327252
MAD 10.519168
MDL 19.788278
MGA 5176.933206
MKD 61.523554
MMK 2439.678938
MNT 4168.013035
MOP 9.404829
MRU 46.275587
MUR 53.119698
MVR 17.903172
MWK 2017.205016
MXN 21.777182
MYR 4.935007
MZN 74.338683
NAD 20.596898
NGN 1779.387897
NIO 42.814637
NOK 11.838157
NPR 160.236077
NZD 1.94976
OMR 0.446894
PAB 1.163311
PEN 4.140847
PGK 4.817146
PHP 66.377189
PKR 331.310933
PLN 4.244785
PYG 9003.666265
QAR 4.229694
RON 5.072695
RSD 117.080642
RUB 91.265035
RWF 1681.00418
SAR 4.36165
SBD 9.64543
SCR 17.082281
SDG 697.942292
SEK 11.245095
SGD 1.492813
SHP 0.913355
SLE 26.62005
SLL 24372.046713
SOS 664.806172
SRD 43.245469
STD 24056.466061
STN 24.485495
SVC 10.17897
SYP 15112.803405
SZL 20.592801
THB 37.628259
TJS 11.196867
TMT 4.079538
TND 3.419874
TOP 2.722137
TRY 46.947496
TTD 7.897322
TWD 34.181766
TZS 3030.404801
UAH 48.58252
UGX 4168.530579
USD 1.162261
UYU 46.882227
UZS 14725.276806
VES 135.943958
VND 30404.760344
VUV 138.92149
WST 3.080055
XAF 655.568644
XAG 0.030448
XAU 0.000347
XCD 3.14107
XCG 2.096558
XDR 0.815317
XOF 655.568644
XPF 119.331742
YER 280.163552
ZAR 20.586499
ZMK 10461.752209
ZMW 26.785133
ZWL 374.247723
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

Armenia PM to meet Erdogan on 'historic' Turkey visit
Armenia PM to meet Erdogan on 'historic' Turkey visit / Photo: Thomas SAMSON - AFP/File

Armenia PM to meet Erdogan on 'historic' Turkey visit

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was in Istanbul Friday for a rare visit to arch-foe Turkey, in what Yerevan has described as a "historic" step toward regional peace.

Text size:

Armenia and Turkey have never established formal diplomatic ties, and their shared border has been closed since the 1990s.

The visit follows an invitation from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who will host Pashinyan at Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace at 1500 GMT, Erdogan's office said.

Analysts said Pashinyan would make the case for speeding up steps towards normalisation with Turkey in a bid to ease Armenia's isolation.

Relations between the two nations have been historically strained over the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire -- atrocities Yerevan says amount to genocide. Turkey rejects the label.

Ankara has also backed its close ally, Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, in its long-running conflict with Armenia.

"This is a historic visit, as it will be the first time a head of the Republic of Armenia visits Turkey at this level. All regional issues will be discussed," Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonyan told reporters.

"The risks of war (with Azerbaijan) are currently minimal, and we must work to neutralise them. Pashinyan's visit to Turkey is a step in that direction."

- Normalisation -

An Armenian foreign ministry official told AFP the pair would discuss efforts to sign a comprehensive peace treaty as well as the regional fallout from the Iran-Israel conflict.

On Thursday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was in Turkey for talks with Erdogan, hailing the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance as "a significant factor, not only regionally but also globally."

Erdogan repeated his backing for "the establishment of peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia".

Baku and Yerevan agreed on the text of a peace deal in March, but Baku has since outlined a host of demands -- including changes to Armenia's constitution -- before it will sign the document.

Pashinyan has actively sought to normalise relations with both Baku and Ankara.

"Pashinyan is very keen to break Armenia out of its isolation and the best way to do that is a peace agreement with Azerbaijan and a normalisation agreement with Turkey," Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe told AFP.

The main thing blocking normalisation with Turkey was Azerbaijan -- a close ally of Ankara, he said.

"Turkey has a strategic dilemma here: on the one hand it wants to stay loyal to Azerbaijan; on the other, opening the Armenian border makes it a bigger player in the South Caucasus," he said.

- Pashinyan concession -

Opening the border would help the economy in eastern Turkey, diminish Russian influence and likely improve Ankara's ties with Washington and the West, among other things, he said.

"Pashinyan by himself won't make this happen, it's only when it moves higher up the Western agenda with Turkey that you might see change."

Earlier this year, Pashinyan said Armenia would halt its campaign for international recognition of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as genocide -- a major concession to Turkey that sparked widespread criticism at home.

He has visited Turkey only once before, for Erdogan's 2023 inauguration. At the time he was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate him on his re-election.

Ankara and Yerevan appointed special envoys in late 2021 to lead a normalisation process, a year after Armenia's defeat in a war with Azerbaijan over then then-disputed Karabakh region.

In 2022, Turkey and Armenia resumed commercial flights after a two-year pause.

A previous attempt to normalise relations -- a 2009 accord to open the border -- was never ratified by Armenia and abandoned in 2018.

N.Fischer--NZN