13:13, 17 February, 2022

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 17, ARMENPRESS. The 2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan says he’s never opposed the opening of the border with Turkey and establishment of relations. 

However, he says that in this matter Armenia should not be the one to ask for it. 

Speaking at a press conference, Kocharyan said that naturally the border of the two countries must be open, but the villagers and producers in Armenia must be protected.

“I’ve never opposed the establishment of relations with Turkey. It was easier for me then, we were the victorious side, our security in Karabakh was ensured. And we, as the victorious side were saying ‘open the border right now’. My formula is the following: we never even closed the border. The border is closed from the other side. The moment they open it, the border will start to work,” Kocharyan said.

However, he argued that this closed border was a protective factor in a sense for the Armenian market when back in the day the process manufacturing was starting to develop. 

“It enabled us to have serious success in several sectors. If they were to say that they were opening the border we would swiftly apply rather serious mechanisms to protect our market. This ought to be done now as well. It’s just that back then our positions were different. We were the ones dictating the agenda back then,” Kocharyan said.

He reiterated that he doesn’t oppose the opening of the border, but stressed that the Armenian villagers must be protected. “If you don’t protect them, you will simply destroy what we have today. The greenhouse businesses will suffer disaster, all cultivating plants must be changed. Potato producers will face the most serious problems. I don’t know whether or not our villagers understand this,” Kocharyan said.

The former president says Turkey will benefit more from the opening of the border. “This means that we must not be in the role of the asking ones. We must say the following: it is natural that the border of the two countries should be opened. But it is unnatural that only a year ago they were killing our soldiers with Turkey’s Bayraktars [UAVs]. And I am sure that the operators of these Bayraktars were not Azerbaijanis, but Turks. This means we must bring this factor forward as well,” he said.