TURKISH PRIME MINISTER UNVEILS CONDITION FOR OPENING BORDER WITH ARMENIA
YEREVAN, February 13. / ARKA /. Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu
said his government would open the sealed border with Armenia, but
on condition that Armenia returns at least one of several regions,
surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, to Azerbaijan, Novosti-Armenia reported
citing RIA Novosti.
“If Armenians withdrew from at least one district, the border could be
opened,” Davutoglu said at a meeting with the leaders of non-Muslim and
non-governmental organizations in Ankara, according to Haber Turk TV.
He added that Armenians living in Turkey are part of the country and
should not suffer because of the strained relations between Ankara
and Yerevan. “The Armenian Diaspora is not an enemy to us, it is our
Diaspora,” he said.
Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations. Turkey closed
its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of support for its ally,
Azerbaijan, which had a dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh,
the ethnic Armenian enclave of Azerbaijan then.
There are several sensitive issues complicating the establishment of
normal relations between the two countries, particularly, Ankara’s
blatant support for Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
resolution process and Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge the mass
killings of Armenians in the last years of the Ottoman Empire as
genocide. -0-