TURKISH FM URGES OPENING OF ALL BORDERS IN REGION

Hurriyet
April 26 2010
Turkey

Turkey’s relationship with Armenia will normalize in the same way as
with other countries, the country’s foreign minister promised Monday.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also called for open borders among
all the region’s neighboring countries.

"We’d like all borders to open, so that businesspeople and goods
can freely circulate. We’d like security to reign in the region,
not conflicts; we’d like an end to invasions and want solutions to
frozen conflicts," Davutoglu said in Parliament, briefing deputies
about the relations with Armenia and the fate of the protocols signed
in October 2009 to establish diplomatic relations.

"If this perspective is put in place, the locomotive of this
region will be Turkey. Turkey will be both at peace and an economic
locomotive," he said, repeating that the government does not want
the status quo to continue in the Caucasus.

While maintaining that vision, he said, Turkey was fully coordinating
its policies with Azerbaijan, stating that nobody could deal a blow
to Turkish-Azerbaijani friendship.

Davutoglu said the objective remained normalizing Turkish-Armenian
and Azerbaijani-Armenian relations. "The Armenia-Azerbaijan border
will also open just as the Turkey-Armenia border opens… That is
our perspective of peace."

Armenia recently announced that it had frozen the process concerning
the ratification of the protocols with Turkey but made it clear that it
had not permanently suspended the normalization process. For his part,
Davutoglu said Parliament would ratify the protocols once political
conditions were ripe.

The foreign minister strongly condemned the burning of Turkish flags
during a rally in Yervean on the 95th anniversary of the 1915 events.

"We condemn that at every level but we know those provocateurs will not
be able to prevent us from realizing our big vision. The fight against
them will continue everywhere at every platform," said Davutoglu.

"We’ll give the answer they deserve to everyone who insults the
honorable history of the Turkish nation. Turkey has the resolve to
be the locomotive power of the entire region and it will be," he said.