The Turkey-Armenia relationship is thawing

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.Happily, a thaw seems to be coming. Turkey and Armenia, divided by regional disputes and the legacy of the mass murder of Armenians by Ottoman forces over a century ago, are talking again. Flights between Yerevan and Istanbul, home to nearly all of Turkey’s remaining Armenians, resumed on February 2nd, after a hiatus of two years. Weeks earlier, the two countries launched talks aimed at normalising ties. (Armenia and Turkey have never established diplomatic relations.) Armenia’s foreign minister will attend a conference in Turkey in March. The opening of the border may be next.