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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday, with the two leaders discussing the ongoing normalization of bilateral relations, including steps toward establishing direct trade, according to the Turkish presidency.
Erdogan told Pashinyan in the phone call that normalization process between Ankara, Yerevan is continuing via steps aimed at launching direct trade between 2 countries
The call came one day after Pashinyan had publicly outlined his case for the rapprochement in some of his sharpest terms yet.
Speaking on the campaign trail Monday, the day before the call, Pashinyan cast the rapprochement with Türkiye and Azerbaijan not as a political choice but as a matter of national survival. "Normalizing relations with Türkiye and Azerbaijan is not a matter of whim," he said. "It is a necessity."
The Armenian prime minister argued that the absence of ties with Ankara carries measurable costs for his country's standing and security, warning that "an empty scale creates serious risks and instability." He expressed confidence the goal was within reach, telling supporters, "I am convinced we will achieve that goal."
Tuesday's phone call comes as Ankara has signaled concrete movement on the commercial front. Türkiye's Foreign Ministry has said that technical preparations for direct trade with Armenia have been completed, and work on reopening the shared land border, closed since 1993, is continuing.
Pashinyan had separately announced that Armenia will renovate the Gyumri-Akhurik-Akyaka railway line linking his country to Türkiye, with work already underway on the Turkish side.
The two countries have had no diplomatic or commercial relations for more than three decades. Ankara closed its border with Yerevan during the First Karabakh War in support of Azerbaijan, its close ally, and subsequent attempts at reconciliation, including a 2009 accord, failed to be ratified.
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