On February 15, Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a meeting with Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the Foreign Minister of Turkey, in Ankara, followed by the press statement of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Turkey, the Press Office of the Armenian Foreign Ministry reported. 

In his remarks, Foreign Minister Mirzoyan particularly noted: "First of all, on behalf of the Republic of Armenia, I once again express my condolences to the families of thousands of victims of the devastating earthquake, to the people and Government of Turkey, and wish a speedy recovery to all the injured."

"Similar natural disasters and their scale extend beyond the borders of states, becoming universal tragedies. And the world should work together as a united front to overcome them. I believe that the international community should never remain indifferent in case of any humanitarian crisis occurring in any corner of the planet. And according to this very principle, the Government of the Republic of Armenia decided to send rescuers and humanitarian aid to Turkey immediately after the devastating earthquake," he said. Mirzoyan thanked Mr. Cavusoglu for his words of appreciation to our rescuers and, generally, for the Armenian presence and support. "I consider it symbolic that on Saturday, the Armenian-Turkish border, which has been closed for thirty years, was opened for Armenian trucks loaded with humanitarian aid heading to Adıyaman. The same happened last night, and hours later, another batch of humanitarian aid will reach Adıyaman," the official added.

Moreover, Mirzoyan emphasized, "Certainly, our meeting today is determined by the disaster that has claimed many lives; however, being in Turkey at this difficult moment, I would like to reiterate once again the readiness and willingness of the Republic of Armenia to build peace in the region and, particularly, to normalize relations with Turkey fully, establish diplomatic relations and fully open the border between Armenia and Turkey."

"I would like to inform, as Minister Cavusoglu noted a little while ago, that today we have discussed some details on this process, and we have an agreement to jointly repair the Ani bridge, as well as take care of the relevant infrastructure ahead of the full opening of the border," he concluded.

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that he had reached agreements with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan on accelerating the process of preparing the infrastructure of the two countries for opening ground communication between them. "Both sides have the results of the analysis and inspections of roads and bridges near the border crossings. The work is underway, and there are steps that we will take regarding the roads leading to the border checkpoints. Today we agreed to speed up the adoption of these measures," the head of the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

Çavuşoğlu recalled that this route is a historical silk road, and its restoration will be important. The Turkish Minister also noted the delivery of 100 tons of humanitarian aid from Armenia to the earthquake zone.

Armenian Foreign Minister will also travel to the southeastern city of Adıyaman to meet with Armenian rescuers who were deployed to the area to join search and rescue efforts after the earthquakes.

Notably, on February 14, Serdar Kılıç, Turkey's special envoy for the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, wrote, "Individually we are one drop, together we are an ocean." The Turkish diplomat commented this way on the previously circulated publication of Ruben Rubinyan, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and Yerevan's special representative in negotiations with Ankara, in which he informed that a group of Armenian rescuers rescued two more people who suffered from a devastating earthquake in Turkey.

"This is the day when we all put aside ethnicity, nationality, and religion and show the highest level of humanism and human solidarity as children of the same God. May God bless you all," Kılıç added.