KU, MILITARY EXPERTS TO DISCUSS SIGNIFICANCE OF BORDER BETWEEN TURKEY AND ARMENIA

Targeted News Service
February 3, 2010 Wednesday 5:28 AM EST

The University of Kansas issued the following news release:

The University of Kansas Center for Russian, East European and
Eurasian Studies, along with the departments of geography and
sociology, are teaming up with area military personnel to provide
a roundtable discussion titled "Turkish-Armenian Border: Challenges
and Implications of Change."

The roundtable, featuring presentations from KU faculty and
representatives of the Kansas National Guard and Fort Leavenworth’s
Command and General Staff College and Foreign Military Studies Office,
will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 8, at Parlors A,B and C
in the Kansas Union.

The Kansas National Guard has been engaged in a long-term partnership
with the Republic of Armenia. Guard members have visited the country
in the South Caucasus to discuss policy issues as well as provide
on-the-ground assistance.

In 2009, civil engineers from the 190th Air Refueling Wing of the
Kansas Air National Guard in Armenia built a warehouse to be used
to store medical equipment and supplies, according to Public Affairs
Director Sharon Watson, of the Kansas Adjutant General’s Department.

The relationship has special significance now, since Turkey and
Armenia have agreed in principle to normalize the border between the
two countries.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 when Armenians and
Azeris clashed over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Home
to a network of oil and gas pipelines, the region continues to be an
area of vital concern to the United States.

Elif Andac, assistant professor of sociology, and Shannon O’Lear,
associate professor of geography, will take part in the two-hour
roundtable. O’Lear is involved in the Kansas National Guard Armenia
Partnership Program as a board member representing KU. She has traveled
to Armenia on an education initiative project with the Kansas National
Guard and continues to serve on the board by bridging the academic
and military communities.

Contact: Bart Redford, Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian
Studies, 785/864-4248