Despite recent moves, Armenia is unlikely to advance normalization with rival Turkey until there is greater progress made in Yerevan's territorial disputes with Turkey-backed Azerbaijan, risking a collapse in normalization talks that would leave Armenia isolated in the Caucasus. On Oct. 6, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pahsinyan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held the first in-person talks between the leaders of the two countries in 13 years as part of an ongoing effort to establish diplomatic relations. In July 2022, Erdogan and Pashinyan pledged in a rare phone call to continue efforts to normalize relations between the two after decades of estrangement, saying they would work to open their borders to third-country nationals and start direct cargo flights between them. The talks came after a rare summit between the two countries' representatives in Moscow on July 1, where the pledges to pursue normalization were initially struck. However, in September,...
