12:03,
YEREVAN, MAY 10, ARMENPRESS. Member of Parliament Gevorg Papoyan from the ruling Civil Contract faction disagrees with opinions claiming that the reopening of the land border with Turkey would only be beneficial for Turkey itself. If that were the case, Papoyan argues, then Turkey would open the border very swiftly because it was Turkey who closed it back in the 1990s in order to economically pressure Armenia.
“There’s a lot of debate in our public life whether or not the opening of the Armenian-Turkish land border would be beneficial for Armenia. If it were not beneficial for Armenia, Turkey would open the border in five seconds, because it’s not Armenia who closed the Armenia-Turkey border, it was closed by Turkey, because that’s how it is economically pressuring Armenia. They’ve never concealed this, they are supporting Azerbaijan by doing so. This shows that the narrative claiming that the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border will have some apocalyptic consequences for Armenia is simply ridiculous and untrue,” Papoyan said at a press conference on May 10.
The opening of the border will lead to economic development, new jobs, development of businesses, increase in tax revenues and significant improvement of the social condition of people, the MP said.
“Turkey has been keeping the border with Armenia closed for many years in order to support Azerbaijan in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. And they haven’t concealed this. This is their assessment. And today, I think they realize that this is beneficial for us, and they are trying to perhaps put forward some demands, find some pretexts. The normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations without preconditions is an agenda item for us, we are not deviating from this, this is a primary clause of the Armenian foreign policy,” he said.
Armenia and Turkey had earlier agreed to open the land border for citizens of third countries by summer 2023. Papoyan said that Turkey hasn’t officially cancelled this agreement. The MP commented on the issue in the context of the latest developments regarding the Nemesis monument.
