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Armenia PM in talks with Erdogan on 'historic' Turkey visit
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during their meeting at the Dolmabahce Presidential office in Istanbul. Photo: AFP
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was meeting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on a rare visit to arch-foe Turkey, in what Yerevan describes as a "historic" step toward regional peace.
The talks began shortly before 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) at Istanbul's Dolmabahce Palace, Erdogan's office said.
Armenia and Turkey have never established formal diplomatic ties and their shared border has been closed since the 1990s.
Analysts said Pashinyan would make the case for speeding up steps towards normalisation with Turkey in a bid to ease Armenia's isolation.
Relations between the two nations have been historically strained over the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire — atrocities Yerevan says amount to genocide. Turkey rejects the label.
And they have been further complicated by Ankara's close ties to Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, and its support for Baku in its long-running conflict with Armenia.
Ahead of the talks, Pashinyan visited the Armenian Patriarchal Church and the Blue Mosque and met members of the Turkish Armenian community, he said on his official Facebook page.
But his visit sparked unease back home. Police rounded up "several dozen" opposition supporters in the capital Yerevan and beyond Friday, rights groups and a lawyers coalition said.
Armenia's interior ministry did not comment on the detentions, but said police had acted on information about plans to disrupt the peace.
"This is a historic visit, as it will be the first time a head of the Republic of Armenia visits Turkey at this level. All regional issues will be discussed," Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonyan told reporters on Thursday.
"The risks of war (with Azerbaijan) are currently minimal, and we must work to neutralise them. Pashinyan's visit to Turkey is a step in that direction."
An Armenian foreign ministry official told AFP Pashinyan and Erdogan would discuss efforts to sign a comprehensive peace treaty as well as the fallout from the Iran-Israel conflict.
A day ahead of his visit, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was in Turkey to meet Erdogan, hailing the two nations' alliance as "a significant factor, not only regionally but also globally".
Erdogan repeated his backing for "the establishment of peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia".
The two nations had agreed on the text of a peace deal in March, but Azerbaijan has since outlined a host of demands — including changes to Armenia's constitution — before it will sign the document. AFP
