Zhoghovurd newspaper of the Republic of Armenia writes: In December 2022, the working groups composed of representatives of Armenia and Turkey met in Ararat Province [of Armenia], near the Armenian-Turkish border.

Zhoghovurd daily learned that sampling of the Margara bridge [on the Armenian-Turkish border] was also carried out. We were also informed that the members of the working group had two meetings in December to implement the agreements reached earlier.

In particular, it is about the agreements reached on July 1, 2022, during the meeting between the representative of Turkey, Serdar Kilic, and the representative of Armenia, Ruben Rubinyan. During that meeting, it was decided to provide an opportunity to cross the Armenia-Turkey land border in the shortest possible time for citizens of third countries visiting Armenia and Turkey. It was also agreed to start Armenia-Turkey direct air cargo transportation as soon as possible.

As Zhoghovurd daily had written, although that ban has been lifted as of January 1, the RA Ministry of Economy had reported that the process has not yet started. Zhoghovurd daily had sent a written request to RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking to inform about what work was carried out in December and at what stage is the process of opening the Armenian-Turkish border.

In response to our inquiry, RA MFA department of information and diplomacy responded: "There is a process of implementing the agreements reached as a result of the July 1 meetings between the RA and Turkey at the level of working groups. In that context, sampling of the Margara bridge was also carried out."

We were also informed that it is not yet known when the upcoming meeting of the representatives of Armenia and Turkey will take place, as now work is being carried out to implement the agreements reached earlier, and only then will an agreement be reached on a new meeting.