Agence France Presse — English
January 13, 2007 Saturday 9:43 PM GMT

Business leaders favor opening Turkey-Armenia border

YEREVAN, Jan 13 2007

Business leaders from Armenia and Turkey meeting here Saturday came
out in favor of opening the border between the two countries which
has been closed since 1993.

At an international conference organized by the United States, the
two business communities discussed the issue that began when Turkey
shut the border over Armenia’s backing separatists in the Nagorny
Karabakh enclave in Azerbaijan. The dispute also centered on
Yerevan’s claims of genocide of Armenians in 1915-1917 during the
Ottoman empire, which Ankara denies.

"I would like the border to be open," said Alyans Kaan Soyak, the
Turkish co-leader of a Turkish-Armenian business commission, saying
it would be "advantageous" for companies in Turkey, where Armenian
imports are currently banned.

His Armenian counterpart, Arsen Kazarian, said Turkey could become
"another opening to the world" for Armenia.

"At the moment we use transportation links in Georgia and Iran which
are expensive. If the frontier is opened, we could use the
Mediterranean ports to reach international markets which would cost
us less," he said.

The conference was organized by the US embassy in Armenia and the
Armenian international policy research group.

Armenian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Arman Kirakossian hailed the
spirit of the conference but said the situation between the two
countries would not change any time soon.

"Every conference of this type influences public opinion… but we
have to understand that it will not lead to a normalisation of
Armenian-Turkish relations. We currently have no relations," he told
AFP.