ZAHIR KANDASOGLU SAYS ARMENIAN-TURKISH BORDERS MUST OPEN

ARMENPRESS
MAY 14, 2010
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MAY 14, ARMENPRESS: It is indisputable that the
Armenian-Turkish borders must open and all the obstacles for importing
and exporting must be cleared, stated Zahir Kandasoglu, Chairman of
Van Chamber of Commerce and Industry. At today’s meeting, organized at
RA Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen (Employers), Mr. Kandasoglu
said most of the states of the world open their borders, so Turkey
and Armenia should do the same. He expressed his gratitude for the
opportunity of visiting Armenia and informed that he had been invited
by an Armenia businessman at a fair in Izmir.

‘Our Government tends to establish good relations with its neighbors
and removes all the obstacles for developing trade with them. The
Turkish entrepreneurs want to establish strong cooperation with you,’
the Turkish businessman said. He added that the works, implemented
in Van, have already proven to be effective- one of the important
buildings for the Armenians, Surb Khach Church on Aghtamar Island,
was reconstructed.

Arsen Ghazaryan, President of RA Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen
(Employers), said the union had established a committee for the support
to Armenian-Turkish business in 1997. ‘We have a conviction that it
is the businessmen, who must level a road for bringing the economies
and cultures of the two states together. In this way the concerns of
politicians will be eliminated as well,’ Arsen Ghazaryan said.

‘The province of Van is such an area, the business of which may feel
the strong influence of the establishment of trade-economic relations
and opening of the borders,’ Arsen Ghazaryan added. He expressed
hope that the Turkish Government will ‘eventually understand that one
should contact and work with his neighbor and enter into conflicts’.

A number of Armenian and Turkish businessmen took part in the meeting
and it is quite possible that they design and implement joint business
projects in the near future.