Armenia PM arrives in Turkey for 'historic' visit
AP File
ISTANBUL: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan arrived in Istanbul Friday for a rare visit to arch-foe Turkey, in what Yerevan has described as a "historic" step toward regional peace.
Armenia and Turkey have never established formal diplomatic ties, and their shared border has been closed since the 1990s.
"Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has arrived in Turkey on a working visit," his spokeswoman Nazeli Baghdasaryan said on Facebook.
The visit follows an invitation from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom Pashinyan is scheduled to meet at Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace at 1500 GMT, Erdogan's office said.
Relations between the two nations have been historically strained over the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire -- atrocities Yerevan says amount to genocide. Turkey rejects the label.
Ankara has also backed its close ally, Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, in its long-running conflict with Armenia.
"This is a historic visit, as it will be the first time a head of the Republic of Armenia visits Turkey 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 neutralise them. Pashinyan's visit to Turkey 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 Turkey for talks with Erdogan and praised the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance as "a significant factor, not only regionally but also globally."
And Erdogan 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.
Normalisation
Pashinyan has actively sought to normalise 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 Turkey that sparked widespread criticism at home.
Pashinyan has visited Turkey only once before, for Erdogan'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 normalisation process, a year after Armenia's defeat in a war with Azerbaijan over then then-disputed Karabakh region.
In 2022, Turkey and Armenia resumed commercial flights after a two-year pause.
A previous attempt to normalise relations -- a 2009 accord to open the border -- was never ratified by Armenia and was abandoned in 2018.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
36 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Amid conflict with Israel, Iran opens airspace to evacuate around 1,000 Indian students
Iran has opened its airspace for India, allowing New Delhi to bring back around 1,000 Indian students under Operation Sindhu as tensions are escalating in the Middle East. According to multiple reports, Mahan Air, an Iranian carrier, will bring back the students to New Delhi in multiple chartered flights over the weekend. Nearly 1,000 Indian students have been moved from Tehran to Mashad and will be brought back in three flights. On Wednesday, the Indian government officially launched Operation Sindhu to evacuate its citizens from Iran. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had confirmed that 110 Indian students from northern Iran were successfully escorted across the border into Armenia on June 17. These students were taken to Yerevan, the Armenian capital, under the supervision of Indian diplomatic missions. Operation Sindhu was launched after reports of Indian students sustaining injuries during a strike on a medical student dormitory in Tehran's Keshavarz Street area. Iranian embassy officials in Delhi confirmed that the Iranian foreign ministry remains in close contact with the Indian mission in Tehran following the incident. In an earlier statement, the MEA emphasised the Indian government's focus on the well-being of its citizens abroad. 'India accords highest priority to the safety and security of Indian nationals abroad. As part of the ongoing operation, the Indian Embassy in Iran has been assisting large numbers of Indian nationals in moving from areas seeing increased hostilities to relatively safer areas within the country and to subsequently evacuate them using the available and feasible options,' it had said. The MEA also expressed gratitude to both Iran and Armenia for their cooperation in facilitating the evacuation efforts. Indian nationals in Iran have been advised to stay connected with the Indian Embassy in Tehran through its emergency helpline and to coordinate with the 24×7 Control Room established by the MEA in New Delhi.
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Pope Leo XIV flags AI impact on kids intellectual and spiritual development
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV warned Friday that artificial intelligence could negatively impact the intellectual, neurological and spiritual development of young people as he pressed one of the priorities of his young pontificate. History's first American pope sent a message to a conference of AI and ethics, part of which was taking place in the Vatican in a sign of the Holy See's concern for the new technologies and what they mean for humanity. In the message, Leo said any further development of AI must be evaluated according to the 'superior ethical criterion' of the need to safeguard the dignity of each human being while respecting the diversity of the world's population. He warned specifically that new generations are most at risk given they have never had such quick access to information. 'All of us, I am sure, are concerned for children and young people, and the possible consequences of the use of AI on their intellectual and neurological development,' he said in the message. 'Society's well-being depends upon their being given the ability to develop their God-given gifts and capabilities,' and not allow them to confuse mere access to data with intelligence. 'In the end, authentic wisdom has more to do with recognizing the true meaning of life, than with the availability of data,' he said. Leo, who was elected in May after the death of Pope Francis, has identified AI as one of the most critical matters facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to defending human dignity, justice and labor. He has explained his concern for AI by invoking his namesake, Pope Leo XIII. That Leo was pope during the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and made the plight of workers, and the need to guarantee their rights and dignity, a key priority. Toward the end of his pontificate, Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it. Francis said politicians must take the lead in making sure AI remains human-centric, so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans and not machines.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Erdogan vows to boost Turkiye's missile production as Israel-Iran war escalates
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel As the war between Israel and Iran escalates, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he plans to strengthen the country's deterrence capabilities so that no country would dare attack announced plans this week to step up Turkiye's production of medium- and long-range discussed the Iran-Israel war with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in a telephone call on Friday. He told Merz that the Iranian nuclear issue can only be resolved through negotiations, according to Erdogan's Turkiye's tense relations with Israel, analysts and officials don't see an immediate threat of the conflict spreading into NATO-member Turkiye. Still, some see the move by Erdogan as a sign that the Israel-Iran war could trigger a new arms race in the region, with countries not directly involved in the fray ramping up their military efforts to preempt future Kasim Han, a professor of international relations at Istanbul's Beykoz University, said that Turkiye was reacting to what he described as an unravelling world order."The Turkish government is drifting toward what is the name of the game in the Middle East right now: an escalation of an arms race," he and the US have set a high standard in aerial warfare, creating a technological gap that Turkiye and others are eager to close, Han said following a Cabinet meeting on Monday that "we are making production plans to bring our medium- and long-range missile stockpiles to a level that ensures deterrence, in light of recent developments.""God willing, in the not-too-distant future, we will reach a defense capacity that is so strong that no one will even dare to act tough toward us," Erdogan an separate address days later, the Turkish leader highlighted Turkey's progress in its domestically developed defence industry, that includes drones, fighter jets, armored vehicles and navy vessels, but stressed that continued effort was needed to ensure full deterrence."Although Turkiye has a very large army - the second largest in NATO - its air power, its air defense is relatively weaker," said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, a Turkey analyst at the German Marshall Fund think ongoing conflict has reinforced the importance of air superiority, including missiles and missile defense systems, prompting "countries in the region, including Turkiye to strengthen its air power," he the start of the conflict, Erdogan has been scrambling to end the hostilities. He has held a flurry of phone calls with leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, offering to act as a "facilitator" for the resumption of negotiations on Iran's nuclear are deep concerns in Turkey that a prolonged conflict will cause energy disruptions and lead to refugee movement from Iran, with which it shares a 560 kilometer-long (348 mile) relies heavily on energy imports, including from Iran, and rising oil prices due to the conflict could aggravate inflation and further strain its troubled has strongly criticised Israel's actions, saying Iran has the legitimate right to defend itself against Israel's attacks, which came as nuclear negotiations were close allies, Turkey and Israel have grown deeply estranged, especially after the start of the war in Gaza in 2023, with Erdogan becoming one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fiercest further deteriorated following the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, as Israel grew increasingly wary of expanding Turkish influence in this year, Turkiye and Israel however, established a "de-escalation mechanism" aimed at preventing conflict between their troops in Syria. The move came after Syria's Foreign Ministry said that Israeli jets had struck a Syrian air base that Turkey reportedly hoped to hasn't commented on Turkey's announcement that it plans to ramp up missile production, but Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar responded to Erdogan's criticisms of Israel over its attack on Iran in an X post on Wednesday. He accused Erdogan of having "imperialist ambitions" and of having "set a record in suppressing the freedoms and rights of his citizens, as well as his country's opposition."Erdogan's nationalist ally, Devlet Bahceli, suggested that Turkey was a potential target for Israel, accusing the country of strategically "encircling" Turkey with its military actions. He didn't say, however, that such statements were for "domestic consumption" to garner support amid growing anti-Israel sentiment in Turkey."I don't think that Israel has any interest in attacking Turkiye, or Turkiye has any interest in a conflict with Israel," Han said.
