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Armenia Rejects Report Turkey May Open Border
asbarez
Friday, July 16th, 2010
Turkey-Armenia border crossing
YEREVAN (RFE/RL) - Armenian officials on Friday were quick to dismiss a
report that Turkey is considering temporarily opening its border with
Armenia for a NATO disaster-relief exercise in September, RFE/RL's
Armenian Service reports.
The AFP news agency quoted an unnamed Turkish diplomat as saying
Ankara has decided to participate in an exercise to be held in
Armenia's central Kotayk region by NATO's Euro-Atlantic Disaster
Response Coordination Center.
The drills, scheduled for September 11-17, are expected to bring
together up to 1,000 participants from two dozen NATO member and
partner states. They will simulate a multinational response to a
powerful earthquake resulting in a humanitarian and environmental
disaster.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 out of solidarity with
Azerbaijan and has since made its reopening conditional on a
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that is acceptable to its
closest Turkic ally.
Ankara has stuck to this linkage even after signing last October's
agreements with Yerevan to unconditionally normalize Turkish-Armenian
relations.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry refrained from officially commenting on
the possibility of a temporary border opening. But a diplomatic source
in Yerevan shrugged off the Turkish statement as `a public-relations
stunt aimed at burnishing Turkey's image.'
`Armenia has no desire to contribute to that effort,' the source, who
asked not to be identified, told RFE/RL. The Armenian government might
refuse to let any personnel or vehicles enter the country from Turkey
during the exercise, he added.
From: A. Papazian
asbarez
Friday, July 16th, 2010
Turkey-Armenia border crossing
YEREVAN (RFE/RL) - Armenian officials on Friday were quick to dismiss a
report that Turkey is considering temporarily opening its border with
Armenia for a NATO disaster-relief exercise in September, RFE/RL's
Armenian Service reports.
The AFP news agency quoted an unnamed Turkish diplomat as saying
Ankara has decided to participate in an exercise to be held in
Armenia's central Kotayk region by NATO's Euro-Atlantic Disaster
Response Coordination Center.
The drills, scheduled for September 11-17, are expected to bring
together up to 1,000 participants from two dozen NATO member and
partner states. They will simulate a multinational response to a
powerful earthquake resulting in a humanitarian and environmental
disaster.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 out of solidarity with
Azerbaijan and has since made its reopening conditional on a
resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that is acceptable to its
closest Turkic ally.
Ankara has stuck to this linkage even after signing last October's
agreements with Yerevan to unconditionally normalize Turkish-Armenian
relations.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry refrained from officially commenting on
the possibility of a temporary border opening. But a diplomatic source
in Yerevan shrugged off the Turkish statement as `a public-relations
stunt aimed at burnishing Turkey's image.'
`Armenia has no desire to contribute to that effort,' the source, who
asked not to be identified, told RFE/RL. The Armenian government might
refuse to let any personnel or vehicles enter the country from Turkey
during the exercise, he added.
From: A. Papazian