Turkey announced the lifting of restrictions on direct trade with Armenia
Turkey announced that it is lifting restrictions on direct trade contacts with Armenia. Yerevan welcomed this decision and called it an important step in the normalization of relations between the two countries.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on October 6, 2022. Photo: Turkish Presidency via AP, File
A representative of the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced that all bureaucratic procedures for launching direct trade were completed on May 11, 2026. According to him, this is being done within the framework of the process of improving relations between Turkey and Armenia, which has been ongoing since 2022. Ankara also stated that it continues to work on opening the common border.
The Armenian side positively assessed this step. Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan noted that the decision will help expand economic and business ties, and will also contribute to regional development and peacebuilding. She added that a logical continuation could be the opening of the border and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries.
The news became known the day before, when journalists accidentally overheard a conversation between the Armenian Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The minister whispered that Turkey "is opening" new trade opportunities "today."
Pashinyan later explained that previously Armenian companies could not officially designate Armenia as an importing country for Turkish goods. Therefore, products had to be imported through third countries. Now this restriction is being lifted, which will simplify direct trade between the states.
Recently, representatives of Armenia and Turkey also met at an international summit in Yerevan, where they agreed to restore the historical Ani bridge on the common border.
However, there are still no official diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey, and the border has remained closed since 1993 due to the Karabakh conflict. Since 2022, the countries have gradually been negotiating the normalization of relations and a partial opening of the border.
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