Turkey Opens Border with Armenia, First Time in 35 Years, For Earthquake Aid

The Turkish government has opened its border with Armenia to receive humanitarian aid for its second deadliest earthquake in modern times. Five trucks with 100 tons of food, medicine, water, and other emergency aid packages crossed the Turkish border from Armenia at approximately 0730 EST. This aid is bound for Adiyaman. This aid is in addition to the twenty-seven rescuers sent to Turkey and the twenty-nine sent to Syria..During the first Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1992, Turkey joined Azerbaijan in an economic embargo and closed the land border with Armenia, which has effectively held since today. Turkey does not recognize the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Republic of Artsakh) that emerged from the May 16, 1994, Russian mediated cease-fire to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, and has set Armenian withdrawal from the disputed oblast and seven surrounding districts as a precondition for establishing diplomatic relations and reopening their joint border. .From 2008–2009, the countries experienced a brief thaw in relations and in October 2009 signed the Normalization Protocols. However, the protocols were never ratified, and in 2010, the rapprochement ended; the protocols were formally annulled by Armenia in March 2018..In December 2021, Armenia and Turkey announced appointing special envoys who met in Moscow in January 2022, with positive international reactions for attempts of normalizing relations. On 1 January 2022, Armenia lifted the embargo on Turkey. (wiki).This incident seems to be the final push to normalize relations which have historically been non-existent due to the Armenian Genocide; the forced deportation and extermination of the majority of the Ottoman Armenian population between 1915 and 1917. Between 800,000 to 1,500,000 (per the government of France) Armenians were killed..The third deadliest earthquake in Turkey during modern times was in August 1999 when 17,000 people were killed. 32,000 people were killed in a 7.8 ,magnitude earthquake in 1939, making that incident the deadliest in modern times. However, in 115AD approximately 260,000 people were killed in a massive quake near Antioch.