RA FM: THE LAST CLOSED BORDER OF EUROPE NEEDS TO BE OPEN

Yerkir
19.04.2007 19:03

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – "For about ten years after the cease-fire,
Azerbaijan, and its ally Turkey, expected Armenia to collapse under
the weight of poverty, economic stagnation and despair.

This hasn’t happened and it will not happen. But no lessons are
being learned from this experience. The blockade continues," Armenian
Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian stated speaking in the OSCE Permanent
Council’s session.

He said, in the issue to normalize relations with Turkey the Armenian
side does not put any preconditions and expects that Turkey, too,
won’t have preconditions. "This is the last closed border in Europe,
and it needs to open, so that Turkey can engage in the region more
positively, and bring its positive contribution to the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict," the RA FM underlined.

Vartan Oskanian also said, the blockade continues. "And with new
efforts: the evidence is the recent signing of a deal to begin
construction of a new railroad that will circumvent Armenia.

We never expected that new initiatives, Baku-Ceyhan for example,
would go through Armenia, but it’s amazing to even contemplate that
one might consider spending $700 mil to $1 billion to build a new
railroad where there is an existing rail that will perform the same
function, just to bypass Armenia," Oskanian stressed.

The RA Foreign Minister noted Armenia has offered Turkey and Azerbaijan
to use the existing one – the Kars-Gyumri railroad.

"Armenia would be willing not to be a beneficiary of the running of the
railroad, we won’t transport our goods on that railroad, we won’t even
charge transit fees, just use it, instead of spending $700 million,"
Oskanian said.

According to him unfortunately Turkey and Azerbaijan have not met
Armenia halfway on this issue. "Armenia will not be isolated, but we
can be alienated. A new railroad will not make us succumb, it will
not do more harm than the existing closed border.

It’s the political environment that will suffer, that’s what we
regret, not the economic benefits," Mr. Oskanian said. "We will
continue to advocate that the existing rail line be opened. And we
will go further, and ask that T urkey open the border and establish
normal ties with Armenia," the Armenian Foreign Minister underscored.