Republic of Turkey §

Successor state and closed border

Turkey is the Ottoman Empire's successor state and the western neighbour whose border with Armenia has remained mostly closed since 1993. In Armenian historical memory it is inseparable from the Armenian Genocide, the loss of western Armenian towns such as Van, Bitlis, Erzurum and Kars, and the continuing denial of genocide by the Turkish state.

In the post-Soviet period Turkey has aligned closely with Azerbaijan, especially through military training, energy transit and the 2020 war. The closure of the Armenia-Turkey border was justified by Ankara as support for Azerbaijan during the First Karabakh War. After 2020, Turkish diplomacy increasingly linked normalisation with Armenia to a peace treaty with Azerbaijan and to transport through Syunik. Armenia's concern is that normalisation becomes conditional surrender on corridor sovereignty; Turkey's position is that regional opening must include Azerbaijan's western connection. contested