Turkish prime minister unveils condition for opening border with Armenia

  • February 13, 2015
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Turkish prime minister unveils condition for opening border with Armenia –

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.


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