Armenia PM arrives in Türkiye for 'historic' visit

ANKARA

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan arrived in Istanbul Friday for a rare visit to Türkiye, in what Yerevan has described as a "historic" step toward regional peace.

"Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has arrived in Türkiye on a working visit," his spokeswoman Nazeli Baghdasaryan said on Facebook.

The visit follows an invitation from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whom Pashinyan is scheduled to meet at Istanbul's Dolmabahçe Palace at 1500 GMT, Erdoğan's office said.

"This is a historic visit, as it will be the first time a head of the Republic of Armenia visits Türkiye 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 neutralize them. Pashinyan's visit to Türkiye is a step in that direction."

An Armenian foreign ministry official told AFP the pair will 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 Türkiye for talks with Erdoğan and praised the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance as "a significant factor, not only regionally but also globally."

And Erdoğan 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.

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

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

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

Pashinyan has visited Türkiye only once before, for Erdoğan's inauguration in 2023. At the time he was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate the Turkish president on his re-election.

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

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

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

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