Show of support from Armenian representative to Turkey

Vice President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan who represents his country in the normalization talks with Turkey showed an act of unity on Sunday on Twitter after two terrible accidents shocked Turkey. 

“My deepest condolences to the families & friends of those who lost their lives in traffic accidents in  #Gaziantep and #Mardin. Speedy recovery to the injured,” Rubinyan said on Twitter. He also mentioned the accounts of his counterpart Ambassador Serdar Kilic, the Turkish representative for normalization and Turkish foreign ministry. 

My deepest condolences to the families & friends of those who lost their lives in traffic accidents in #Gaziantep and #Mardin. Speedy recovery to the injured. @serdarkilic9 @MFATurkiye

— Ruben Rubinyan (@RubenRubinyan) August 21, 2022

On Sunday, 20 people were killed in Turkey's southeastern city of Mardin when a truck with a blown-out tire ran over a group of people, and a highway pileup on Saturday killed 16 in Gaziantep. 

Ater Turkey and Armenia restored diplomatic ties and started normalization talks in January, Rubinyan and Kilic met 4 times, once in Moscow and 3 times in Vienna and had more than 500 phone talks so far.

A Turkish diplomat involved in the talks recently said that the special representatives were “on the same wavelength” and the meetings between them created a very positive atmosphere.

The talks began to bear fruit last month when Turkey and Armenia decided to start direct air cargo trade “at the earliest possible date” and open their mutual border to third-country nationals.

As a gesture of goodwill, the leaders of the two countries also made a phone call and discussed the normalization process.