ArmInfo.The essence of the agreements reached between Armenia and Turkey on July 1 is to prepare for the establishment of land communications, and subsequently the Armenian-Turkish relations in general. An expert in the field of energy security, Ph.D. Vahe Davtyan, expressed a similar opinion to ArmInfo.
On July 1, the fourth meeting of the Special Representatives of Armenia and Turkey, Vice Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ruben Rubinyan and Ambassador Serdar Kilic took place in Vienna. During the meeting, the parties agreed to open the land border for citizens of third countries. An agreement was also reached to establish Armenia-Turkey air cargo transportation as soon as possible.
"In other words, here we are talking more about a purely political than a purely economic effect. And I do not think that the establishment of direct air cargo transportation with Turkey is in the interests of Armenia. If only for the reason, that importing oil products, citrus fruits and textiles to Armenia by air is economically unreasonable. Because there are no perishable goods imported from Turkey to Armenia, which are usually transported "by air", he stressed.
Recalling that over the past quarter of a century, Armenia has imported goods worth $3 billion from Turkey, while exporting goods worth only $60 million, and 90% of the goods imported from Turkey to Armenia are finished products, and only 10% are raw materials, the expert noted, that any possible changes from these new decisions will not work in favor of Armenia.
"Given the ill-conceived nature of the current economic policy of Armenia, I am convinced that these proportions of exports and imports between Armenia and Turkey will remain after Ankara unblocks land communications. A real economic effect from the open border with Turkey can be expected only after the radical modernization of our economy, based on a fundamentally new concept, an economic development strategy that will allow us to determine the appropriate export vectors and, accordingly, the priorities of local industrial production," Davtyan summed up.
