Nikol Pashinyan arrived in Antalya, Turkey, on November 11 to attend the COP31 UN climate summit, just one day after Ankara reaffirmed that reopening its border with Armenia remains conditional on an agreement between Yerevan and Baku.

On November 10, Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu confirmed that preparations to reopen road and railway crossings were complete but said Ankara was awaiting a final Armenian-Azerbaijani agreement, taking Azerbaijan’s concerns into account.

Turkey has kept its land border with Armenia closed since 1993 in support of Azerbaijan. Despite years of negotiations, the countries have yet to establish diplomatic relations.

Pashinyan’s visit follows a personal invitation from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during their September meeting in New York. Bilateral meetings are scheduled during the summit, although no separate meeting with Erdoğan has been confirmed.

The visit also comes just four days after Pashinyan declared that international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is entirely absent from his administration’s foreign policy agenda, describing the issue as a bargaining chip used by foreign powers.

Read 301’s previous report on Pashinyan’s remarks about Armenian Genocide recognition.

Turkey continues to deny the Armenian Genocide and provided extensive political and military support to Azerbaijan during the 2020 war against Artsakh.

Meanwhile, Pashinyan has authorized High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan’s November 10–12 visit to Istanbul for meetings with Armenian community representatives, educational and cultural institutions, and organizations.

Sinanyan’s visit comes amid Pashinyan’s increasingly critical statements about established Diaspora organizations. In April, he dismissed certain groups as marginal and said his administration would eventually cease dealing with them. In September, he declared that the Diaspora could not act as Armenia’s mentor and questioned its political influence.

Although the two visits overlap, no direct coordination between their announced programs has been confirmed.