Turkey announced on Wednesday that it had lifted a prohibition that prevented businesses from listing Turkey or Armenia as the origin or destination on shipping documents when goods moved through a third country. The change means that direct trade references are now permitted even if the physical transit passes through an intermediate state. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli described the move, writing on social media platform X that it was taken “in the light of the historic opportunity seized to strengthen lasting peace and prosperity in the South Caucasus,” and that Turkey would continue to “contribute to the development of economic relations in the region and to further advancing cooperation for the benefit of all countries and peoples of the region.”
The decision is the latest in a series of confidence-building measures since late 2021, when Turkey and Armenia agreed to work toward improving relations and appointed special envoys to discuss reconciliation and the eventual opening of the border. The process has already led to the resumption of direct flights between the two countries and an easing of some visa restrictions. Keceli added that technical and bureaucratic work aimed at opening the shared border was continuing.
Armenia welcomed the move. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan wrote on X that it was “an important step toward the establishment of full and normalized relations between the two countries, which could logically continue through the opening of the Armenia-Turkey border and the establishment of diplomatic relations.”
Turkey and Armenia have no formal diplomatic relations. The border has been closed since 1993, when Turkey shut it in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan, which was then locked in a conflict with ethnic Armenian forces over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Turkey strongly backed Azerbaijan again in a 2020 war that saw Baku regain control of significant territory using Turkish military equipment, including combat drones.
Relations are also haunted by the World War I-era deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey. Historians widely regard the events as genocide. Turkey rejects the label, maintaining that the death toll is inflated and that deaths resulted from civil unrest.
The border closure and the absence of diplomatic ties have stunted economic exchange between the two countries for decades. The easing of the trade restriction is the most concrete economic signal yet that both governments are willing to move toward normalization, though major hurdles — including the reopening of the land border and a resolution to the genocide dispute — remain.