Turkey lifts ban on direct air cargo transportation with Armenia

YEREVAN, Jan. 7. /ARKA/. Armenian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Vahan Hunanyan confirmed Friday Turkish media reports that Turkey lifted the ban on direct air cargo transportation with Armenia.

The Turkish Ministry of Trade was said to have informed local organizations involved in export operations about lifting the ban.

‘Indeed, the Turkish side informed us today that the ban on direct air cargo transportation has been lifted. We would like to remind that commencing of direct air cargo transportation between Armenia and Turkey was one of the agreements reached at the meeting of special representatives on July 1, 2022. We expect that the other agreement - ensuring the possibility to cross the land border for citizens of third countries, will also be implemented as soon as possible,’ Hunanyan said.

"We, of course, positively assess Turkey's lifting of the ban on direct air cargo transportation. Armenia, as before, will constructively continue negotiations both on another agreement reached by the special envoys on July 1 to ensure the possibility of crossing the land border for citizens of third countries as soon as possible, and on the full settlement of Armenia-Turkey relations, that is, the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border," Hunanyan noted.

Although Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Armenia’s independence from the former Soviet Union, the countries have no diplomatic ties and Turkey shut down their common border in 1993, in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan which was locked in a conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Turkey also refuses to recognize the Armenian genocide, committed during 1915-1923 when an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman government. The overwhelming majority of historians widely view the event as genocide.

In 2009, Ankara and Yerevan reached an agreement in Zurich to establish diplomatic relations and to open their joint border, but Turkey later said it could not ratify the deal until Armenia withdrew from Nagorno-Karabakh.

In 2020, Turkey strongly backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan gain control of a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In December 2021, the two countries appointed special envoys to normalize relations, who have had a number of meetings.-0-