PRESS RELEASE
TURKISH- ARMENIAN BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL TABDC
TABDC ISTANBUL :
Tel: (0-212) 236 00 17 Fax: (0-212) 259 72 51
e-mail : tabdc@tabdc.org
website: www.tabdc.org
TABDC YEREVAN:
Abelyan 6/1 Str.Yerevan, Armenia
Tel: (374-1) 35 11 80 Fax: (374-1) 35 12 40
Discovering Common Grounds of Economic Cooperation
EP conference calls for opening of the Turkish-Armenian border
Speaking at a conference in the European Parliament on April 3,
Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council (TABDC) co-chair Kaan Soyak
called for the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border. Entitled `Still an
Iron Curtain: Armenia-Turkey relations, 10 years after the border was
closed/ April, 3, 1993-April, 3, 2003″, the conference was hosted and
chaired by Per Gahrton MEP (EP rapporteur for the Caucasus) and Joost
Lagendijk MEP (Chairman of the EP delegation for relations with Turkey). The
event marked the 10th anniversary of the closure by Turkey of its Armenian
border, in connection with the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Addressing the conference, Mr. Soyak emphasized the obvious opportunities
which opening the border presents for all the countries in the region,
including Turkey and Armenia. According to the World Bank, the current
status quo is the number 1 obstacle to the development of a region otherwise
well endowed in natural resources, human capital and infrastructure. The
economic crisis in Eastern Turkey is made considerably worse by the region’s
inability to trade across the border, while the cost of closed borders to
the republic of Armenia alone is estimated between 30 and 40% of its GNP.
This latest call is part of a long-standing effort by the TABDC to obtain
the opening of the Armenia-Turkey border and promote economic cooperation in
the region. The group has campaigned for this in Turkey since 1997 and it
has worked at all levels and in both countries for development economic
relations between. It is led by Mr Soyak, a prominent Turkish businessman,
and Arsen Ghazarian, currently Chairman of the Union of Manufacturers and
Businessmen of Armenia (UMBA).
Kaan Soyak presented the activities of TABDC in the field of public
diplomacy. Besides its lobbying activities with all regional institutions
and agencies, TABDC has been working for increasing direct interactions by
sponsoring numerous trade missions, joint cultural activities, academic
cooperation and student exchange programmes and has been working on an
awareness raising campaign for the restoration of Armenian monuments in
Turkey. Soyak has made a presentation from the perspective of a business
pracitioner of the regional impact of a Turkish-Armenian cooperative
strategy especially within the TRACECA (Transport Corridor
Europe/Caucasus/Asia): the use of the existing railway connection between
the two countries will integrate the most cost-effective, commercially
viable and strategically beneficial East-West corridor to the EC sponsored
transport programme.
Per Gahrton MEP, host of the conference and author of the EP report on EU
relations with the South Caucasus, emphasized that the position taken by the
European Parliament in February 2002 relating to Armenia-Turkey relations
still stand[1]. He repeated the call formulated in his report, and endorsed
by the European Parliament, for the Turkish government to open the Armenian
border. He pointed out, furthermore, that in his view initiatives to reopen
the Armenia-Turkey border are the most promising way out of the deadlock in
the Caucasus.
Both Per Gahrton and Joost Lagendijk underscored that the conference aimed
to draw the attention of the European institutions on the much neglected
Turkish-Armenian relations and on the closure of their common border.
An analytical report on relations between Armenia and Turkey, also published
on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the blockade by the
Brussels-based think tank GRIP, was presented to the conference by Burcu
Gültekin and Nicolas Tavitian. This report, the first of its kind published
in the European Union, analyses the factors in the current deadlock, spells
out its human, political and economic costs, and points to possible steps
out of the impasse.
The conference was attended by representatives of NGOs, observers, members
of Parliament as well as by officials and diplomats from the EU institutions
and from the Embassies of Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Yorumlar kapatıldı.