Türkiye and Armenia on Monday signed an agreement to jointly restore the medieval Ani bridge on their shared border, as part of moves to normalize ties between the two countries.
"We believe that symbolic and concrete areas of cooperation, such as the joint restoration of the Ani bridge which was formalized today by a memorandum of understanding, will help establish a lasting climate of peace and security," said Türkiye's Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz.
Yilmaz met Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the sidelines of the eighth European Political Community summit in Yerevan.
Pashinyan wrote on X that he had a "fruitful exchange" with Yilmaz and hailed the bridge restoration deal.
The bridge was built in the 10th century over the Arpacay river, which borders the medieval site of Ani in eastern Türkiye, the capital of the former Armenian kingdom.
It had two levels, one for caravans underneath and another above for pedestrians.
Only its piers are still standing and visible.
Restoration of the site, which was entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2016, is already the subject of scientific cooperation between the two countries.
Yerevan and Ankara have not established diplomatic relations and their land border, which was briefly opened in the early 1990s, remains shut.
The two countries have pursued a cautious rapprochement since the end of 2021 and Azerbaijan's seizure of Karabakh, which saw most of the Armenian population leave.
At the end of last month, they decided to put the Kars-Gyumri railway line back into service on both sides of the border.
Türkiye's national carrier, Turkish Airlines, operated its first direct flight between Istanbul and Yerevan in March.
But the two sides remain divided.
The Armenians say 1.5 million of their people were killed under the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1917 and seek international recognition that it was genocide.
Türkiye strongly denies the accusation of genocide and disputes the numbers, saying that the Armenians were among hundreds of thousands of people who died in the turmoil of World War I as the Ottoman Empire disintegrated.
