Ajit Karn
Turkey’s Istanbul An official claimed that on Saturday, a border crossing between Armenia and Turkey opened for the first time in 35 years to facilitate the passage of humanitarian assistance after a powerful earthquake struck the area.
Serdar Kilic, Turkey’s special representative for negotiations with Armenia, tweeted that five trucks carrying help, including food and water, had arrived in Turkey from the Alican border crossing.
The help comes after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake last week that shook Turkey and Syria killed almost 25,000 people in both countries and injured tens of thousands more.
The border hadn’t been open since 1988, when Turkey transported supplies to Armenia after that nation was struck by an earthquake that left between 25,000 and 30,000 people dead, according to state news agency Anadolu.
Kilic praised Armenia and vice president Ruben Rubinyan of the Armenian National Assembly in a tweet. He said that medication was part of the help.
Rubinyan expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to help on Twitter.
The two nations’ common border has been closed since the 1990s, and they have never had official diplomatic ties.
Mass Armenian massacres during World War I in the Ottoman Empire, which Yerevan claims constitute a genocide, have strained their relationship.
But in December 2021, after Armenia had fallen to Turkey’s ally Azerbaijan in a conflict for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area, the two nations created special envoys to assist normalise ties.
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Asserting that between 300,000 and 500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks killed in civil war when the Armenians rebelled against their Ottoman masters and allied with Russian invaders, Turkey vehemently opposes the genocide term.
The first commercial flights between Turkey and Armenia in two years will begin in February 2022.
However, since 1993, the land border between the two nations has been blocked, requiring vehicles to pass via Georgia or Iran.
