Hraparak daily of Armenia writes as follows, in particular: Our government sources say that [PM] Nikol Pashinyan recently received Ruben Rubinyan [deputy speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia and the country’s special representative for the normalization process with Turkey] to discuss the course of development of relations with Turkey and the situation related to opening the [Armenian-Turkish] border.

Our source says Rubinyan reported [that] attempts to speed up the process of opening the borders with Turkey have so far have achieved no success, and there is a high likelihood that even after TRIPP is launched, Turkey will not open the borders [with Armenia], and the maximum that can be expected [is] the opening of the border for holders of diplomatic passports starting from January 2026. Even that is not certain yet.

According to our source, Pashinyan responded that if Turkey does not open the borders, the profitability and meaning of the TRIPP project will be called into question, and he noted that he would personally ask US ambassador to Turkey [Tom] Barrack to convey this information to [US President Donald] Trump so that he would put pressure on [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan.

When learning about this conversation at the [Armenian] prime minister’s office, some officials could not hide their reaction: “First they shout to the whole world about opening [regional] communications, which are supposed to bring billions [of dollars] to the country, and then they start thinking about how to persuade the Turks to open the borders.”