Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
June 21 2005
Turkey Opens Borders, Except Armenian One
Jan SOYKOK – Turkey adds two more border gates. First Turkish and
Iraqi PMs decided to open a new border gate between Turkey and Iraq.
Two days ago Turkish and Bulgarian leaders opened the second
bordergate between Turkey and Bulgaria. Turkey’s border gates with
Syria and Greece also need expansions. However border with Armenia
remained the exception.
Nilgun Gulcan from ISRO says `Turkey’s borders are open, and most of
them are over limitations. Turkey has border gates with Greece,
Bulgaria, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It also has sea
port gates. And it has no problem with any neighbor except Armenia’.
According to Dr. Gulcan, the problematic side is Armenia:
`Turkey has no problem with other neighbors, but Armenia has serious
problems with its neighbors. The borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan
are closed. Georgia and Armenian relations have been problematic
since the beginning. The Armenian extremists does not recognize
Georgia’s borders and Armenian officials have secretly supported the
Armenian separatism in Georgia. The only neighboring country Armenia
has relatively good relations is Iran. If you do not recognize
existence of your neighbor, you cannot expect respect. Armenia does
not recognize Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s national borders. If there is
no border, there will be no border gate. It is simple.’