When Will You Open the Border with Armenia? Garo Paylan to Turkish Vice President Fuad Oktay

Garo Paylan, a member of the Peoples' Democratic Party of Turkey, who actively defends the rights of ethnic minorities in the country, has sent a written inquiry to Turkish Vice President Fuad Oktay, requesting a written response to the following questions:

“Although Turkey was the first country to recognize Armenia’s independence in 1991, it closed its borders with Armenia in 1993 due to the Nagorno-Karabakh war, froze diplomatic and political relations, and conditioned the normalization of relations with Armenia on the withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijani territory. Following the Nagorno-Karabakh war, according to the ceasefire agreement reached last year, Armenian forces left those territories that had been under their control for decades. Recently, Presidents Erdogan and Prime Minister Pashinyan have made statements calling for the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations.”

In this regard, Paylan posed several questions:

• What path will you choose to normalize relations with Armenia?
• When will you open the border with Armenia?
• When will you establish diplomatic relations with Armenia?
• What steps will you take to ensure trustworthy relations with Armenia?
• Is there a discussion about securing land and rail transport with Armenia?
• Are you preparing to initiate direct flights to Armenia?

It should be noted that in April 2021, Garo Paylan presented a bill to the Turkish Grand National Assembly, proposing to recognize the Armenian Genocide, remove the names of those responsible for the genocide from public places, and amend Turkey's citizenship laws.