Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 12: Turkey and Armenia opened their border gate for the first time in 30 years to allow the passage of humanitarian aid for those impacted by the deadly earthquakes that struck the former, according to Anadolu Agency.
Serdar Kilic, Turkey’s special envoy for negotiations on normalising relations with Armenia, claimed on Twitter that the Armenia delegation had passed the Alican border gate in five trucks that were each carrying 100 tonnes of food, medication, and water.
“In addition to the A/K team of 28 people and technical equipment, immediately after the earthquake, 5 truckloads of 100 tons of food, medicine, water and other emergency aid packages of the Armenian people left for Adiyaman by passing through the Alican border gate this morning. Thank you @RubenRubinyan Armenia,’ Kilic tweeted.
Vice President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, Ruben Rubinyan also said that the trucks with humanitarian aid crossed the Armenian-Turkish border today and are on their way to the earthquake-affected area. Happy to have been able to assist.
According to Al Jazeera, Turkey and Armenia’s relations have been tense for many years, and their shared land border has been closed since 1993 as a result of fighting between Armenians and Azerbaijanis of Turkic ancestry.
Since the 1990s, the two nations’ relations have mainly been strained because of Armenia’s claims that the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner of modern Turkey, slaughtered around 1.5 million people in 1915.
This, according to Armenia, is genocide.
The Ottoman Turks killed the majority of this ancient Christian race, committing a crime against humanity that has never been atoned for or, in the case of Turkey, the subject of an apology or recompense.
