Turkey and Armenia will ease visa procedures for holders of diplomatic, service and special passports, allowing them to apply online for an e-visa without paying a fee starting January 1, 2026, Turkey’s foreign ministry said Monday.
The ministry said the decision was reached within the framework of talks led by the two countries’ special representatives in a process of normalization aimed at restoring ties “without preconditions” and reaching “full normalization.”
The measure applies to official passport categories used for government travel, including diplomatic passports and other state-issued documents that Turkey calls service and special passports.
Turkey and Armenia have had no diplomatic relations for decades, and Turkey closed its land border with Armenia in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan, its close ally, during the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The two neighbors also remain at odds over the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, which Armenia and many historians describe as genocide. Turkey rejects that term.
Ankara and Yerevan restarted direct talks in 2022, naming Ambassador Serdar Kılıç and Armenian Deputy Parliament Speaker Ruben Rubinyan as special envoys.
In July 2022 the envoys said they had agreed to start steps to open the land border to third-country citizens and to begin direct air cargo trade.
In September 2025 the envoys met in Yerevan and said they would expedite work on earlier border-crossing agreements and consider technical work related to rail links and other contacts.
Turkey’s foreign ministry has previously said the envoys discussed easing visa procedures for diplomatic and official passport holders as part of confidence-building steps.