Armenia to lift ban on Turkish imports

Armenia said Thursday it was lifting an embargo on Turkish goods from January 1, while Turkey announced the two countries’ envoys could meet in January to discuss mending ties.

Arch-enemies Armenia and Turkey have recently made tentative moves to improve relations.

In Yerevan, the Armenian economy ministry said it was lifting an embargo originally imposed over Ankara’s backing of Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan in a six-week war with Armenia in 2020.

“A decision was made not to extend the embargo on the import of Turkish goods into the country,” the ministry said.

The two countries have no diplomatic relations, a closed frontier and a long history of hostility rooted in mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Turks during World War I.

The bitter relationship has deteriorated more recently over Turkey’s support for Azerbaijan, which last year fought a war with Armenia for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The flare-up claimed more than 6,500 lives and ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that saw Yerevan cede swathes of contested territory it had controlled for decades.

Earlier this month Turkey and Armenia named special representatives to work on the normalisation of ties.

Turkey will be represented by former Washington ambassador Serdar Kilic, while Armenia appointed Ruben Rubinyan, deputy speaker of the National Assembly, as special envoy.