Armenia and Turkey have agreed to accelerate the process of dialogue to finally open the border between the countries, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said.
“Concrete agreements have been reached. There is a decision to speed up the process of dialogue to finally open the border between Armenia and Turkey,” Mirzoyan said at a government meeting on Thursday, presenting the results of his February 15 visit to Turkey.
According to him, an agreement has also been reached to open the Armenian-Turkish border for citizens of third countries and holders of Armenian and Turkish diplomatic passports before the start of the tourist season.
The minister also said that Armenian rescuers sent to Turkey will return home through the land border on Thursday.
For his part, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the republic’s actions to help Turkey are exclusively humanitarian in nature.
“It is absolutely unacceptable to criticize us, because I cannot imagine a situation where millions of people in a neighboring country need help and someone can be indifferent. This is unacceptable,” Pashinyan said.
On the other hand, he said, Armenia emphasizes the need to change the quality of relations in the region.
“I regret that a certain change is taking place in the face of such a tragedy. But perhaps human tragedies make people more understandable to each other. This is an objective reality. I hope it can become a new starting point for establishing relations between Armenia and Turkey,” Pashinyan said.
He also said that the preliminary design of the reconstruction of Ani bridge on the border between Armenia and Turkey is ready.
The new Ukrainian airline Bees Airline in April-June launches regular direct flights from Kyiv to Tbilisi, Batumi and Yerevan, as well as from Odesa to Yerevan.
According to the press service of Kyiv Sikorsky International Airport, in particular, Kyiv-Tbilisi-Kyiv flights will be launched from April 30 and will be operated on Tuesdays and Fridays, and from June 6 additionally on Sundays.
Kyiv-Batumi-Kyiv flights will be operated from June 9 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Kyiv-Yerevan-Kyiv flights will be launched from April 29 on Mondays and Thursdays.
Odesa-Yerevan-Odesa flights will start from June 14 on Mondays and Fridays.
In addition to Bees Airline, UIA and SkyUp also operate direct flights from Kyiv to Tbilisi, and SkyUp to Batumi. UIA also operates direct flights from Kyiv to Yerevan.
As reported, the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine issued an operator certificate to Bees Airline on March 12, 2021. Later, the regulator allowed the company to operate flights on 31 routes – 15 regular and 16 charter.
The Ukrainian airline SkyUp has launched flights from Kyiv to Yerevan, Varna and Burgas, according to the company’s website. According to its data, the flights will be operated with departure from Boryspil airport (Kyiv, Terminal F).
Flights on the route Kyiv-Yerevan from May 17, 2019 will be operated twice a week on Mondays and Fridays.
Kyiv-Varna flights from June 14, 2019 will be operated on Fridays, flights on the Kyiv-Burgas route from May 31 with a frequency of two or three times a week.
As reported, in 2018 SkyUp Airlines passenger traffic amounted to 442,000 people.
As of January 2019, SkyUp’s fleet included five aircraft: four Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft with 189 seats, and one Boeing 737-700 NG airplane with 149 seats.
