Pashinyan congratulates Erdogan on his re-election as President of Turkey

YEREVAN, May 29. /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan congratulated Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his re-election as Turkish president.

"Looking forward to continuing working together towards full normalization of relations between our countries," Pashinyan wrote in a tweet.

According to Anadolu Agency, Erdogan is leading in Sunday's second round of the Turkish presidential election with 51.97% of the vote after processing almost 99.9% of ballots, with opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu gaining 48.03% of the vote.

Although Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Armenia’s independence from the former Soviet Union, the countries have no diplomatic ties and Turkey shut down their common border in 1993, in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan, which was locked in a conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Turkey also refuses to recognize the Armenian genocide, committed during 1915-1923 when an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman government. The overwhelming majority of historians widely view the event as genocide.

In 2009, Ankara and Yerevan reached an agreement in Zurich to establish diplomatic relations and to open their joint border, but Turkey later said it could not ratify the deal until Armenia withdrew from Nagorno-Karabakh.

In 2020, Turkey strongly backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan gain control of a significant part of Nagorno-Karabakh.

On n February 9, Armenia sent 100 tons of aid to quake-stricken Turkey by five trucks through a border gate between the two countries that was opened for the first time in 35 years.

In December 2021, the two countries appointed special envoys to normalize relations. They have had 4 meetings already.-0-