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Turkish Factor

Erdoğan receives Pashinyan at Türkevi in New York, backs normalisation in trade and transport and invites him to the COP31 leaders’ summit

President Erdoğan received Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan at Türkevi in New York on Wednesday, with foreign minister Hakan Fidan beside him, and told him Türkiye supported “the normalisation process in bilateral trade and transport”, welcomed “reciprocal steps in the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia” and invited him to the COP31 leaders’ summit Türkiye will host, Hürriyet reported at 20:27 Istanbul time. Armenia’s side went into the meeting saying it “looks forward to border opening, launch of rail connectivity with Türkiye”, Armenpress reported at midday, and came out of it, in Arka’s headline, with both sides seeing a need to “stimulate trade and economic ties”.

By CAW Staff24 September 2026
Two small tulip-shaped tea glasses on a single pale saucer, one full and steaming and one empty, the empty rim catching an amber light.

The border has been closed since 1993 and the railway from Gyumri to Kars has not run since. The 2 governments’ special envoys have met since January 2022 with the border as it was. Erdoğan’s line, that “the continuation of the positive momentum in relations is important”, is the same line as last year’s; what is new is the sentence on trade and transport, spoken with Fidan beside him a week after the minister’s own visit to Baku.

Türkiye’s price for the opening has been the peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan, and Erdoğan’s welcome of “reciprocal steps” is the sentence that says so again. The treaty was initialled in 2025 and the TRIPP route through Syunik is the American piece of the same map; Baku’s foreign minister said the same night that the route “will contribute to the development of regional links and the strengthening of peace”.

The border has been closed since 1993 and the railway from Gyumri to Kars has not run since.

COP31 is in Türkiye in November, and an invitation to a leaders’ summit is a date on a calendar Yerevan can accept without a border; the trade and transport normalisation Erdoğan supports has no date. The meeting’s third participant was Fidan, who was in Baku a week ago.

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