In recent weeks, the possibility of reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey has been actively discussed. In particular, the aid sent from Armenia to Turkey after the earthquake in February was hotly debated. This action by Armenia was presented by many pro-government politicians as the right decision in the context of the normalization of relations between two neighbors.
In order to transfer the aid, Margara Bridge linking Armenia and Turkey, which had been closed by Turkey for the last 30 years, was open for “one time and one way use only.”
Moreover, the Armenian foreign minister visited Turkey and met with his Turkish counterpart.
The impression was created that in this situation, the reconciliation of Armenian-Turkish relations may be at hand. Of course, everyone understands that there is no alternative to rapprochement between two neighbors and neighbors cannot have closed borders forever.
All three former presidents of Armenia had similar approaches, and for all three of them, the reconciliation of Armenian-Turkish relations was one of the main challenges to their foreign political agendas, but what price they were ready to pay for the settlement of those relations is another question.
During the developments last month, we witnessed some other signals as well. While Armenia was sending aid to Turkey, Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdoğan, thanking the Azerbaijani rescuers, noted that “the Azerbaijani brothers were on the side of the Turks after the disaster as the Turks were on the side of Azerbaijan during the 44-Day War.”