ARMENIAN VILLAGE PLANS FOR TURKISH BORDER OPENING

Eurasianet

April 16, 2009

Amidst rising international expectations of an Armenian-Turkish
rapprochement, hopes are rising fast in the Armenian border village of
Margara that this hamlet of 1,500 people — site of the only bridge
between Armenia and Turkey — will soon become the two countries’
central land link.

"We are full of hopes," commented 50-year-old Gagik Avetisian, who
lives on the village street leading to Margara’s bridge over the Arax
River to Turkey. "They [officials] now come from Yerevan to repair
the roads. Maybe this time something will change, and the border will
really open up."

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Urban Development told EurasiaNet
that the repairs are routine and not connected with the border
discussions.

But Yerevan visitors asking about house prices or talking about
opening a shop, hotel, restaurant or gas station have fired Margara’s
expectations still higher. Avetisian says that he hopes to sell his
house and 1,000 square meters of adjacent land for a price several
times higher than before talks about reopening the border began.

Others concentrate on the jobs an opening of the 325-kilometer
Armenian-Turkish border could bring. Villagers currently subsist on
growing tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers for themselves and markets
in Yerevan.

"We have been waiting for it for so many years! We didn’t care before
if it was open or closed, but we want it [to open] now," said Kolia
Piliposian, the 74-year-old owner of the Margara house closest to the
border. "The living conditions are very poor here, and the opening
of the border will create jobs and will give opportunities to do
business here."

The government, meanwhile, is also expressing cautious optimism. At an
April 10 press conference to mark his first year in office, President
Serzh Sargsyan said that he plans to cross the border to attend an
October 7 World Cup-qualifying football match between Armenia and
Turkey in Istanbul.

"This can be viewed as an optimistic approach, and my optimism may
prove to be groundless, but we won’t be the losers in this move,"
Sargsyan affirmed. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 to
support ally Azerbaijan in the war with Armenia over the breakaway
Nagorno Karabakh region.

But despite Sargsyan’s stance, the debate among Yerevan analysts
about the pros and cons of an open border with Turkey shows little
sign of dying down.

Economists worry about whether Armenian companies would be able
to withstand an influx of cheaper goods from Turkey. Turkish goods
currently enter Armenia via Georgia; an open border would mean lower
transportation costs and, hence, lower prices.

Andranik Tevanian, chairman of the Politeconomia Center for Economic
Analysis, though, believes "that problem can be solved" by setting high
customs duties on Turkish goods. Tevanian estimates that the closed
border costs Armenia about $300 million in foreign trade each year.

Herbert Hambardzumian, secretary general of the Union of International
Cargo Carriers of Armenia, points to lower cargo costs for Armenian
exporters — Turkish ferry services across the Black Sea are cheaper
than Russian services by $1,000 to $1,500 per ferry, he noted.

One political analyst, however, worries about how Armenia will cope
with an influx of ethnic Armenians from Turkey. "There will be very
serious problems of national security and demography," noted Armen
Aivazian, director of the Ararat Center for Strategic Research.

An open border will give the Turkish government "additional leverage"
to use against Armenia on the Nagorno Karabakh dispute, he argued,
expressing a fear that Azerbaijanis with Turkish passports would be
able to enter Armenia without restriction. "Armenia’s weak system of
national security is not prepared to face all these [challenges],"
Aivazian said.

Back in Margara, however, the focus is less on security challenges and
more on what life is like on the other side of the border. While the
bridge was built in the late 1960s, it was not used until 1993, when
it opened for a few days after the start of the Turkish blockade for
international organizations to deliver wheat and medicine to Armenia
amidst wartime shortages. No cars have since traveled over the bridge.

Talks on re-opening the border picked up again last summer when
President Serzh Sargsyan invited Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul
to watch a World Cup-qualifying match in Yerevan between Armenia and
Turkey. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The Gyumri-Kars
railway, the only line running between the two countries, was even
repaired for Turkish football fans to travel to Yerevan by train,
Gyumri railroad station Deputy Director Valeri Muradian said at the
time. Slight repairs were also made to Margara’s bridge and customs
control point.

But while Margara villagers may still not be able to see their
Turkish neighbors three kilometers away in the village of Alijan,
they can hear them, according to Khachik Asatrian, Margara’s government
chairperson. "We can hear the voices in Alijan when there is a wedding
there. Judging from the voices and the music, there seem to be lots
of Kurds there."

The Russian border guards who survey Armenia’s Turkish border issue
annual passes for villagers to cross over and farm their land in a
neutral zone, but villager Anna Simonian says that many prefer to not
bother with "all that fuss with the documents." Fear also keeps some
away, although no attack on an Armenian villager has ever occurred,
she added.

Nonetheless, Armenian villagers in Margara have already found one
thing in common with their Turkish neighbors: the chance for a fresh
start if the border reopens.

"Their villages in this part [of the country] are very poor as well,
judging from their houses . . . " observed villager Piliposian, whose
house stands at the border. But if the border opens "[t]he villages
will revive, they will do business . . ."

Editor’s Note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for the ArmeniaNow.com
weekly in Yerevan.