Energy interests are helping to fuel fresh efforts aimed at normalizing Armenian-Turkish relations.

Meeting on the sidelines of a gathering sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA), Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, along with his minister for infrastructure, Davit Khudatyan, talked with Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar to explore a variety of energy-related connectivity issues. 

“We discussed infrastructure and energy issues that will contribute to lasting peace and stability in our region; within this scope, we addressed areas of cooperation, primarily electricity interconnection, nuclear energy, and natural gas,” Bayraktar stated in a social media post.

The March 10 meeting marked the highest-level contact between Armenian and Turkish officials since Pashinyan’s visit to Istanbul for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last June.

That meeting has been widely viewed as kick starting a new reconciliation and rapprochement initiative. A previous effort to normalize relations stalled in 2010. 

The Istanbul visit was also seen as consistent with Pashinyan’s “Real Armenia“ strategy, under which his government strives to focus on economic development while setting aside historical grievances that have impeded the establishment of full diplomatic relations with Turkey, including an insistence that Ankara recognize the Ottoman-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide. 

None of the three ministers shared details of their March 10 discussions, although Bayraktar’s mention of energy and infrastructure issues suggested a focus on practical cooperation, without necessarily addressing the historical and ideological topics that have dominated bilateral relations since Armenia regained independence in 1991.

Speaking to journalists in Istanbul in February, Bayraktar said, “We support the normalization of economic relations with Armenia. We can realize cooperation in energy. This is an opportunity for both countries,” he said. 

While the meeting took place at the IAEA summit, nuclear cooperation was not likely a major subject of the Armenian-Turkish discussions. Both countries have nuclear power plants, but talks more likely to focused on integrating Armenia into regional power and natural gas transmission networks, as well as exploring new cooperation opportunities created by the Armenian-Azerbaijani provisional peace deal, and the landmark agreement to create the TRIPP corridor. 

For most of the post-Soviet era, Turkey and its strategic ally Azerbaijan maintained an economic blockade of Armenia as part of the decades-long conflict over the Nagorno Karabakh territory. Azerbaijan completed its reconquest of Karabakh in 2023 with Ankara’s help. Ankara has long signaled readiness to end the blockade – action that could boost the economic fortunes of poor regions bordering Armenia – but has hesitated out of a sense of loyalty to Baku. 

Armenia has few energy resources of its own and has been dependent on Russia and Iran for supplies of natural gas and petroleum products. Yerevan has also depended on Russia for nuclear fuel for its Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant, which meets up to 40 percent of Armenia’s electricity needs. 

Those supplies are now threatened by the ratcheting up of sanctions on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, and more immediately by the US-Israeli war in Iran. Armenia, which needs to replace the aging Metsamor plant, signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States in February.

Although primarily expected to be a road and rail transport route, plans for the TRIPP corridor through southern Armenia also envisage the laying of a power transmission line and a gas pipeline.

Azerbaijan has already started laying 330 kilovolt (kV) lines on both sides of the corridor in anticipation that the envisioned US-run TRIPP Development Company will begin work on the route across Armenian territory.

Armenia already has a functioning 220 kilovolt (kV) connection with Turkey which, to date, has seen little use. Ankara is expected to upgrade and expand the connection as part of a wider program to increase power connectivity with Turkey’s near neighbors. 

Turkey completed construction of a gas pipeline link in 2025 to Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan exclave, which is expected to be extended through the TRIPP corridor to the Azerbaijani mainland. That pipeline could potentially be used to supply Armenia with gas from either Azerbaijan or Turkey. It would also be relatively straightforward for Ankara to extend a separate gas pipeline into northern Armenia from an existing line that runs through Kars province near the Armenian border.

—