TURKEY’S CHAMBER OF COMMERCE NOT INTERESTED IN OPENING BORDER WITH ARMENIA
ARKA
May 13, 2009
YEREVAN, May 13. /ARKA/. Turkey’s Chamber of Commerce is not interested
in opening of Armenian-Turkish border, representative of the Turkey’s
Chamber of Commerce Selcuk Yilmaz told journalists in Yerevan.
"We are not interested, personally our organization is not interested
in it," he said at the opening of the 15th meeting of the Union of Road
Transport Associations (URTA) in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
(BSEC) region.
Yilmaz pointed out that the opening of the border is a political
problem and should be solved by political means.
The opening of the border will be of advantage to Armenia, he said.
"Trade is above all. It will ensure peace between Armenia and
Turkey. It is international rules, and Turkish citizens will have to
obey the laws of their country," Turkish representative said.
No diplomatic relations exist between Armenia and Turkey, and the
Armenian-Turkish border has been closed since 1993 initiated by
official Ankara.
The first warming of the relations occurred on September 6 2008 when
Turkish President Abdullah Gul arrived in Yerevan for the first
time on the invitation of the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan
for watching together the football match between the nationals of
Armenia and Turkey in the scope of the 2010 championship qualifying
games. During this visit, the t wo countries’ presidents discussed
possible normalization of the bilateral relations.
On April 22, foreign ministries of Armenia and Turkey, together
with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs made a joint
statement about normalization of relations. The statement reads
that the parties reached an agreement on a wide-ranged settlement of
bilateral relations. The sides also agreed on establishing a "road map"
for normalization of the relations.