Ankara's lifting direct cargo flight ban raises hopes for Türkiye-Armenia normalisation

Türkiye has lifted its ban on direct cargo flights with Armenia effective immediately, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said with little fanfare on January 6.

The move comes amid talks on the normalization of ties that could ultimately result in the opening of the two borders between the two countries, which Türkiye closed in solidarity with Azerbaijan in 1993 during the First Karabakh War, Eurasianet writes.

Azerbaijan’s victory in the Second Karabakh War in 2020 opened the door to the normalization talks, which were launched in January 2022 between special envoys Serdar Kilic, a senior Turkish diplomat, and Ruben Rubinyan, the vice speaker of Armenia’s parliament.

The sides agreed to work toward opening air cargo transit at their meeting in Vienna in July 2022. Another agreement reached at that meeting, on the opening of the land border to citizens of third countries, will be implemented “very soon,” Armenian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Vahan Hunanyan said on January 6.

The rapprochement process also saw the opening of direct Turkey-Armenia passenger flights in February 2022.