ARMENIAN PRESIDENT SAYS HE HOPES TO RE-OPEN BORDER WITH TURKEY BY OCTOBER
Southeast European Times
en_GB/newsbriefs/setimes/newsbriefs/2009/04/13/nb- 06
April 14 2009
YEREVAN, Armenia — President Serzh Sargsyan said on Friday (April
10th) he expects his country’s border with Turkey to re-open by
October. "I think I will cross an open border to attend the next
football match [between the two countries’ national teams on October
14th]," he told a press conference in Yerevan. Turkey and Armenia
have had no diplomatic relations for more than a decade. Turkey closed
its border with Armenia in 1993 to support Azerbaijan’s stance in the
Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. Another open issue
is the killings of 1.5 million Armenian civilians by Ottoman Turks
in 1915-1917, which Yerevan insists was genocide. The two neighbours
launched a normalisation process and stepped up official contacts
last year.
On Sunday, however, Turkey reiterated the border cannot open without
a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. "There is an impression
that Turkey will open the border although the Karabakh row is not
resolved. Such an impression is not correct," Yasar Yakis, head of
parliament’s Committee on EU Adjustment, told reporters. (Anadolu
news agency, TRT – 12/04/09; Hurriyet, Reuters, Ansa – 10/04/09)