Jerusalem Post
June 11 2005

Armenia wants US help with Turkey border dispute
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON

Armenia’s foreign minister urged the United States to become more
involved in settling his country’s dispute with Turkey, especially in
persuading Turkey to reopen its border and resume normal trade with
its landlocked northern neighbor.

The Turks closed the border in 1993 during Christian Armenia’s
six-year war with another Muslim neighbor, Azerbaijan.

“The United States is active in this, but we would like to see them
more engaged,” Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said Friday after a
meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“I believe the United States can be more assertive on the border
matter. Not other matters, but on the border.”

Turkey closed the border after Armenian-backed troops from
Nagorno-Karabakh, a mainly Christian Armenian enclave ruled by
Azerbaijan when Armenia and Azerbaijan were Soviet republics, moved
into other parts of Azerbaijan, seized towns and approached the
Iranian and Turkish borders. A 1994 truce largely ended hostilities,
but a final settlement has not been reached.