ARMENIAN HISTORIAN: TURKEY MAY OPEN THE BORDER WITH ARMENIA FOR A TIME

ArmInfo
2009-08-13 13:08:00

ArmInfo. ‘Turkey always finds reasons not to open the border
with Armenia, and it is unlikely to be opened in the near future’,
Director of the Institute of History of the Armenian National Academy
of Sciences Ashot Melkonyan told ArmInfo.

He said that unblocking of the border with Turkey is impossible as this
issue is considered as part of the Karabakh problem. Nevertheless, A.

Melkonyan agreed that Ankara will symbolically open the border in case
if President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan accepts the invitation to pay a
reciprocal visit to Turkey in October. ‘Since the West exerts pressure
on Turkey regarding opening of the border, symbolic opening of the
Armenian-Turkish border may become possible from the position of the
international etiquette’, the historian said. He added that this will
be done to create an impression that Turkey stands for normalization
of the Armenian-Turkish relations. ‘Turkey will possibly open the
border but for a time’, A. Melkonyan said.

Talking of the benefit from symbolic opening of the border, and whether
the Armenian president has to accept the invitation and agree to such
terms, A. Melkonyan said: ‘From the political and moral viewpoint,
Armenia is not ready for the border opening, so such a symbolic
gesture by Turkey will be of no benefit for Armenia’.