US BACKS EFFORTS TO REOPEN TURKISH BORDER: ARMENIAN FM
Agence France Presse — English
March 9, 2007 Friday 6:53 PM GMT
The US backs Armenia’s efforts to reopen its border with Turkey and
normalise trade and political relations, Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian said Friday after talks in Washington.
The United States "has made it a goal to reopen the Turkish-Armenian
border … and has always made efforts to normalise relations"
between the two countries, Oskanian said at a press conference after
returning from Washington, where he met Monday with US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice.
But, he said, "Ankara’s intransigent position is an obstacle to
this process."
The 355-kilometre (221-mile) border was closed in 1993 at the height
of the Nagorno Karabakh war in which ethnic-Armenian separatists in
Azerbaijan took over almost a fifth of Azeri territory.
The closure has inhibited the economy of this country, which in
addition to Azerbaijan and Turkey also borders Georgia and Iran.
Armenia fully backed the separatists, while Turkey gave diplomatic
support to Azerbaijan. Years of negotiations have failed to resolve
the dispute between Azerbaijan and the separatists.
Armenia and Turkey are also in a dispute over Turkey’s refusal to
agree with Armenia that mass killings by Ottoman Turks of ethnic
Armenians in 1915-1917 constituted genocide.
Armenian and Azerbaijani diplomats will meet in Geneva Tuesday and
Wednesday for the latest round of negotiations on the status of
Nagorno Karabakh. Oskanian said he was optimistic about the talks.
"As long as there are no unexpected difficulties on the part of
Azerbaijan during the talks, there is a basis for the meeting in
Geneva to have a positive result," he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
