Armenia says agreed with Turkey to conduct technical studies for restoration of Gyumri-Kars railroad

YEREVAN. Sept 12 (Interfax) - The Armenian and Turkish special representatives for bilateral normalization, Ruben Rubinyan and Serdar Kilic, respectively, met in Yerevan on Friday and agreed to consider a possibility of restoring transport links between their countries, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

"The sides agreed that the two countries' relevant authorities would conduct necessary technical studies for the restoration and operation of the Gyumri-Kars railroad and transmission line," the statement said.

The pair "also have agreed to carry out work needed to attract other interested companies to fly in various directions from next summer, which should increase the number of air routes and flights between the two countries," it said.

Rubinyan and Kilic also have agreed to work to strengthen cultural and academic cooperation, in particular by creating scholarship opportunities for higher-education students and a joint restoration of the historical Ani/Silk Road bridge.

"An exchange of views took place on the implementation of the agreement reached at the July 1, 2022 meeting over a border-crossing issue. The special representatives have agreed to speed up this process," the statement said.

The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to continue with this process with no preconditions, it said.

This was the sixth such meeting of special representatives on Armenia-Turkey normalizations in Yerevan.

Later, the ministry's press service said that Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan had met with Kilic.