The Armenian and Turkish foreign ministries reported no concrete agreements in their identical short readouts of the latest session of a bilateral working group dealing with the rehabilitation of the Kars-Gyumri railway closed by Ankara over three decades ago.
“The parties emphasized the significance of the early operation of the Kars-Gyumri railway in the context of enhancing regional transport communications,” they said.
The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan hailed the talks in a social media post titled “Historic progress toward a peaceful and prosperous South Caucasus.”
“Restoring this critical link between Armenia and Turkiye is an important step in unlocking regional connectivity and solidifying regional stability,” it wrote on X.
According to the embassy, the Turkish and Armenian officials met on Tuesday to “establish a joint working group for rehabilitating the Kars-Gyumri Railroad.” Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said last month that the group has already been set up and held two meetings.
The two sides agreed to conduct “the necessary technical studies” for relaunching the rail link during Turkish envoy Serdar Kilic’s visit to Yerevan last September. They also pledged to “expedite” the implementation of a 2022 agreement to open the Turkish-Armenian border to Armenian and Turkish diplomatic passport holders as well as citizens of third countries.
Turkish media reported afterwards that this will likely happen in March, ahead of Armenia’s parliamentary elections slated for June. However, Ankara has continued to drag its feet over the partial border opening which Pashinian hopes would boost his and his party’s reelection chances.
In a sign of Yerevan’s frustration, Mirzoyan skipped an annual diplomatic forum in the Turkish city of Antalya earlier this month. Another Armenian official, parliament speaker Alen Simonian, complained a few days later that Ankara is “not taking any new steps” to normalize Turkish-Armenian relations.
Turkish leaders have made clear in recent months that the normalization remains conditional on a resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict acceptable to Azerbaijan.