Published: Less than 10 min ago
The border between Armenia and Turkey opened on Saturday for the first time in 35 years. The purpose is to let aid shipments through to the earthquake affected areas.
Five trucks with, among other things, food, water and medicine passed into Turkey at the Alican border crossing, writes Serdar Kilic, Turkey’s special envoy to Armenia, on Twitter.
According to the Turkish state news agency Anatolia, it is the first time since 1988 that the border between the countries has been opened. Then it was Turkey that sent emergency aid after an earthquake disaster that hit Armenia.
The two countries have never had formal diplomatic relations. The situation has been tense since the mass murders of Armenians during the First World War in the then Ottoman Empire. Between 800,000 and 1.5 million people are estimated to have been killed, most of them Armenians.
Special envoys were appointed in December 2021 as part of normalizing relations.