Europe | Caucasian thaw

The Turkey-Armenia relationship is thawing

But normalisation will not mean reconciliation

|IGDIR

BLANKETS OF SNOW cover Igdir, a drab town in eastern Turkey near the border with Armenia. Mount Ararat, where Noah and his ark supposedly washed up after a spot of rain, towers over the scene. The closest big city, Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, is 30km away. But there is no going there, nor is there a way for Armenians to reach Turkey by land. The border between the two countries is closed. At the crossing outside town, Turkish soldiers stand guard opposite an unused customs building, braving the cold.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Caucasian thaw”

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