Ankara has denied reports that French President Emmanuel Macron was prevented from entering Türkiye from Armenia following his recent visit to Yerevan..
Ankara did not prohibit French President Emmanuel Macron from entering Türkiye via the Armenian border, according to a senior Foreign Ministry official cited by local media.
Claims that Ankara denied Macron’s request to enter Türkiye following his recent visit to Yerevan are false, the unnamed official told ANKA News, a Turkish media outlet, on Thursday.
The official was also quoted as saying that Ankara did not want the ongoing Türkiye-Armenia normalisation process to be exploited for domestic political reasons.
Only Türkiye, the official stressed, would decide who was allowed to cross the border, which has remained largely closed for more than three decades.
The unnamed official’s remarks follow reports that Macron had wanted to make a symbolic land crossing into Türkiye from Armenia, but had been denied permission by the Turkish authorities.
Earlier this week, Macron visited Yerevan to attend a European political summit, where he called for the opening of all regional borders, including those between Türkiye, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
According to the French leader, open borders would help unlock the region’s economic potential and promote peace in the South Caucasus.
Paris, for its part, has not publicly commented on the alleged border-crossing incident.
For both Ankara and Yerevan, the border issue has long been a sensitive one.
Türkiye recognised Armenia following its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, but the two countries never established diplomatic relations.
In 1993, Ankara closed its border with Armenia during the First Garabagh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in which Türkiye supported the latter.
Following the Second Karabakh War in 2020, Türkiye and Armenia began taking steps to normalise diplomatic relations - a process that remains ongoing.
Since then, direct flights have resumed between the two countries, while their shared border has been opened in principle to third-country nationals and holders of diplomatic passports.
However, the border remains politically sensitive, as it is linked not only to Türkiye-Armenia relations, but also to a parallel peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
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