ONLY OPENING BORDER WITH ARMENIA WILL NOT STIMULATE ECONOMY

armradio.am
03.09.2009 15:35

Turkey and Armenia’s efforts to reconcile their differences will
relieve some tension in the Caucasus, but a boom in trade from
reopening the border can only take place if Azerbaijan is included in
the equation and that is dependant on unraveling the Nagorno-Karabakh
problem, according to Turkish leaders, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Despite the historic step taken by Turkey and Armenia, local
businessmen and experts warn that only a comprehensive solution that
includes Azerbaijan could boost economic and trade opportunities for
the region.

"It is quite important to find a parallel solution for the
Azerbaijan-Armenian track. We actually think Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation will accelerate the Nagorno-Karabakh solution,"
Kaan Soyak, co-chairman of the Turkish-Armenian Business Development
Council, or TABDC, said Wednesday in an interview with the Hurriyet
Daily News & Economic Review.

The normalization process is expected to have an enormous impact
on trade between the border towns of the two countries. Igdır,
which is linked to Armenia through the border gate Alican, is one of
them. "The border trade has become the main actor of the local economy
as livestock and agriculture production decreased," Kamil Arslan,
president of Igdır Industry and Trade Chamber told the Daily News
on Wednesday.

0D The exclusion of Azerbaijan from the peace process would be the
worst scenario for local tradesmen, according to Arslan. Pointing
out that many local businessmen have deals in autonomous Azeri areas
such as Nahchivan, Arslan said: "In such a case they might lose their
current market."

"It takes 10 to 12 days to send our goods to Azerbaijan and
Turkmenistan through Georgia. However, it will only take four hours
to export through Armenia. That’s why we insist on a comprehensive
solution that includes the Azerbaijanis."

He advocated Armenia had no promising potential, saying: "Trade only
with Armenia will not be profitable. It doesn’t have medium or large
industry. Its economy is weak with no significant production. We
already sell our goods to them thanks to our dealers across the
country."

"But if a transit corridor linking Igdır to Baku is opened, then
our trade volume will be doubled" he said.