As the trucks rolled across the border, the reaction in neighboring Azerbaijan was blistering. State-controlled media railed against any hint of rapprochement between Ankara and Yerevan, accusing “circles in Turkey” of betraying Azerbaijan and of using pro-Western Armenia to win favor with “imperialist forces” and the European Union. (Armenia had just adopted a law launching its EU accession process.) Even seasoned regional observers were struck by the stridency of the conspiracy-laden reports.

On March 21, Armenia’s land border with Turkey, closed since 1993 amid their decades-long diplomatic rupture, opened temporarily to allow through Armenian humanitarian aid trucks delivering goods to Syria through Turkish territory. It was the second such opening; the first occurred in 2023, when the Armenian government directed relief and aid workers to victims of a devastating earthquake in southern Turkey.

On March 21, Armenia’s land border with Turkey, closed since 1993 amid their decades-long diplomatic rupture, opened temporarily to allow through Armenian humanitarian aid trucks delivering goods to Syria through Turkish territory. It was the second such opening; the first occurred in 2023, when the Armenian government directed relief and aid workers to victims of a devastating earthquake in southern Turkey.

As the trucks rolled across the border, the reaction in neighboring Azerbaijan was blistering. State-controlled media railed against any hint of rapprochement between Ankara and Yerevan, accusing “circles in Turkey” of betraying Azerbaijan and of using pro-Western Armenia to win favor with “imperialist forces” and the European Union. (Armenia had just adopted a law launching its EU accession process.) Even seasoned regional observers were struck by the stridency of the conspiracy-laden reports.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has so far indulged Azerbaijan’s ruler, Ilham Aliyev, in conditioning Turkish-Armenian normalization on an Azerbaijan-Armenia treaty.