The diplomat, Serdar Kilic, and Armenian parliament vice-speaker Ruben Rubinian signed the agreement after several rounds of negotiations. It called for the opening of the border for Armenian and Turkish diplomatic passport holders as well as citizens of third countries. Ankara has since been reluctant to do that, linking any normalization of relations with Yerevan to the signing of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.

Turkish media reported last year that the deal will likely be implemented in March, ahead of Armenia’s parliamentary elections slated for June. However, Ankara has continued to drag its feet over the partial border opening.

Kilic, who was attending an international conference in the Armenian capital, claimed that the border remains fully closed due to “purely technical and bureaucratic” issues.

“We expressed our political will back in August 2022,” he said. “But I cannot predict when the border will open, I don’t want to give wrong information.”

The Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet reported earlier that the border opening is now expected on June 4, three days before the Armenian elections. However, Azerbaijan’s official Azertaj news agency on Tuesday cited an unnamed Turkish Foreign Ministry source as denying the report.

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