Turkish Press: Azerbaijani ambassador says Turkey-Armenia border to open after

Turkish Minute

May 19 2026

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Turkey Rashad Mammadov has said the Turkey-Armenia land border will be opened after Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections and planned constitutional amendments to remove references that Baku says amount to territorial claims against Azerbaijani territory, the Cumhuriyet daily reported.

Mammadov made the comments in response to a question about whether Azerbaijan opposes the opening of the border between Turkey and Armenia, which has been closed since 1993.

“We are pursuing a policy agreed with Turkey and are in constant contact with the Turkish Foreign Ministry,” Mammadov told Cumhuriyet in an interview published on Monday, adding that the Turkey-Armenia and Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization processes were being carried out in parallel.

Mammadov said Baku and Ankara were moving “step by step” and that Azerbaijan’s main concern was the language in Armenia’s constitution.

“After the June 7 election, they will amend the constitution and hold a referendum,” he said.

“After the territorial claim is removed, the Azerbaijan-Armenia peace agreement initialed in the United States will be signed. After that, the Armenia-Turkey and Armenia-Azerbaijan borders will be opened.”

Turkey shut its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan during the first Nagorno-Karabakh war.

Although Ankara and Yerevan launched a renewed normalization process after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, Turkey has continued to link further progress to a final peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Recent momentum in Turkey-Armenia contacts has coincided with progress, but not a final agreement, between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The two countries initialed a peace deal at a summit in Washington in August 2025, but the agreement has not yet been formally signed.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in November that Turkey would open the border gates with Armenia once such an agreement is signed.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has pledged constitutional changes, but a possible referendum is expected to come after the June 7 elections.

‘Small steps’ toward normalization

Mammadov was also asked about Turkey and Armenia recently beginning direct trade, which he described as part of a gradual process of normalization.

“We are taking small steps, and Azerbaijan is also taking steps,” he said, adding that Azerbaijan had also started trade with Armenia and was now playing a role in its energy security by supplying oil and fuel.

Turkey and Armenia completed bureaucratic preparations to launch direct trade, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Öncü Keçeli announced last week, saying that the preparations were complete as of May 11 as part of “confidence-building steps” taken under the normalization process that began in 2022.

Mammadov said Azerbaijan was also enabling the transportation of Armenian wheat and other products from Kazakhstan and Russia through Azerbaijani territory.

“We tell them that if there is peace, your security will also be better,” Mammadov said. “Turkey is also taking very small steps.”

Turkish-Armenian contacts gain momentum

Mammadov’s remarks come amid a recent increase in diplomatic contacts between Turkey and Armenia.

Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz met with Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan in Yerevan on May 4, marking the highest-level visit by a Turkish official to Armenia since then-president Abdullah Gül traveled there in 2008 during a period of so-called “football diplomacy.”

Yılmaz, who represented President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the eighth European Political Community summit in the Armenian capital, said he had a “comprehensive and productive” meeting with Pashinyan on behalf of Erdoğan.

The two sides discussed bilateral ties and cooperation on transportation, customs, energy, digital infrastructure and connectivity.

Yılmaz also welcomed what he called “concrete progress” in the normalization process, pointing to a memorandum of understanding signed for the joint restoration of the Ani Bridge, a medieval bridge over the Arpaçay/Akhurian River near the ruins of Ani that once connected Anatolia and the South Caucasus.

Ankara and Yerevan appointed special envoys as part of the renewed normalization process, with the first round of talks held in Moscow in January 2022.

The fifth round took place at the Alican crossing, which links Turkey’s Iğdır province with Armenia’s Armavir region, on July 30, 2024.

As part of the process, the two countries agreed on confidence-building measures including the start of direct flights, air cargo transport and the opening of the land border to third-country nationals and diplomatic passport holders, although the border remains closed.

The process has also included recent talks on reopening the Kars-Gyumri railway, the only rail link between Turkey and Armenia, which has been idle since 1993.

Concerns over Baku’s role

Mammadov’s remarks prompted criticism from some observers, who saw them as an unusually explicit statement by an Azerbaijani official on when and under what conditions Turkey should open its border with Armenia.

Gönül Tol, founding director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute (MEI), a Washington-based think tank, said on X that she had increasingly heard Turkish diplomats complain over the years about how “difficult” Azerbaijan was and how much it sought to dictate terms to Ankara.

“But an Azerbaijani ambassador publicly declaring when and under what conditions the Turkey-Armenia border will open takes things to a new level,” Tol said.

Turkey and Azerbaijan have long maintained a close alliance, often described by officials in both countries as “one nation, two states,” a reference to their ethnic, linguistic and political ties.

The relationship has deepened further since Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, during which Ankara provided strong backing to Baku, with the two countries elevating their ties to a formal strategic alliance with the signing of the Shusha Declaration in 2021.