ERDOGAN: SINCE ARMENIANS STILL HAVEN’T WITHDRAWN FROM AZERBAIJANI TERRITORIES, TURKEYWON’T OPEN ITS BORDER WITH ARMENIA

APA, Azerbaijan
March 25 2010

Baku – APA. Since Armenians still haven’t withdrawn from "Azerbaijani
territories," Turkey won’t open its border with Armenia, said Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an interview with German weekly
Die Zeit.

Asked by the interviewer why Turkey doesn’t open its border with
Armenia, Erdogan said: "The border was closed because the Armenians
attacked our Azerbaijani brothers and occupied Nagorno-Karabakh. The
UN also considers that occupation. When the Armenians leave those
territories, we will open the border."

Referring to the passing of Armenian Genocide resolutions by various
countries’ parliaments, the Turkish prime minister said that "That’s
the result of propaganda by the Diaspora."

"Parliamentarians occupy themselves with a subject that they have no
connection to. Such resolutions shouldn’t be passed by third-party
states. That’s only the political propaganda by the Armenian Diaspora,"
he said.