TURKISH PM INSISTS ON CONDITIONS TO OPEN ARMENIA BORDER

Agence France Presse
April 18, 2010 Sunday 1:27 PM GMT

Turkey will keep its border with Armenia shut if a territorial
conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains unresolved, Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday.

"We shut the border because of the occupation of Azeri soil," Erdogan
was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

"The occupation should end so that Turkey can easily open its (border)
gates. But if the occupation continues, we will not take such a step,"
he said.

The reopening of the Turkish-Armenian border is part of a landmark
accord the two neighbours signed in October to establish diplomatic
ties and end decades of hostility over Ottoman massacres of Armenians
during World War I.

But the deal, which needs parliamentary ratification in both countries
to take effect, has since faltered amid mutual accusations that the
other side is not committed to reconciliation.

Turkey sealed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity
with Azerbaijan after ethnic Armenian separatists, backed by Yerevan,
seized the Nagorny Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts
from Baku in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

Armenia has slammed Ankara’s position as a "precondition," rejecting
any link between the October deal and Nagorny-Karabakh.

Erdogan met with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian in Washington
last week after a Turkish envoy visited Yerevan to confirm Ankara’s
commitment to the October deal and to push for a solution to
outstanding disagreements.

The two neighbours have been estranged also over Yerevan’s allegations
that up to 1.5 million Armenians were the victim of genocide at the
hands of their Ottoman rulers in 1915-1917, a label Ankara fiercely
rejects.