TURKISH BUSINESSMAN PESSIMISTIC ABOUT OPEN BORDER WITH ARMENIA
By Shakeh Avoyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep
Jan 15 2007

The Turkish-Armenian border will remain closed without a breakthrough
in international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,
according to a Turkish businessman who has long campaigned for
normalization of relations between Ankara and Yerevan.

Kaan Soyak, co-chairman of the non-governmental Turkish-Armenian
Business Council (TABC), indicated on Monday that the Turkish
government is unlikely to drop its main precondition for lifting the
economic blockade it imposed on Armenia in 1993 out of solidarity
with Azerbaijan.

"This was the reason why Turkey closed the border," Soyak told
reporters in Yerevan, referring to the unresolved Karabakh conflict.

"So unless there is movement or progress in this area, I don’t see
any green light from the Turkish side."

"But what I see at the same time on Turkish side is a willingness to
approach Armenia more than ever before. They are also trying to find
a way out," he added.

Successive governments in Ankara have adhered to this policy despite
pressure from the United States and the European Union that say
normalization of Turkish-Armenian ties is essential for regional peace
and stability. Armenia’s leadership also stands for the establishment
of diplomatic relations and reopening of the land border between the
two nations without any preconditions.

Deputy Foreign Minister Aram Kirakosian reaffirmed Yerevan’s position
on the issue in a speech at a weekend international conference that
discussed possible economic consequences of an open border. He urged
Turkey to act "impartially" towards all regional states and "abandon
its policy of driving Armenia out of regional projects."

Speaking to RFE/RL last November, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul made no mention of the Karabakh dispute and reiterated instead
his government’s demands for joint Turkish-Armenian academic research
of the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. Gul said
Ankara insists on the idea of setting up a commission of Turkish and
Armenian historians which was floated by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan in a 2005 letter to President Robert Kocharian.

Kocharian effectively turned down the proposal, saying that this
and other problems hampering Turkish-Armenian rapprochement should
first be tackled by the two governments. Armenia and its worldwide
Diaspora believe that the 1915-1918 genocide of some 1.5 Armenians
in Ottoman Turkey is a proven fact that can not be disputed by
historians. They see the Turkish offer as a ploy designed to scuttle
greater international recognition of the genocide.

Soyak, who also attended the Yerevan conference along with several
Turkish experts, admitted that chances of the opening of the frontier
are slim. "It’s been almost ten years since we started work on opening
the border," he said of the TABC. "We then hoped that the border will
open next month. We now want to [see it] open before we die."