groong: Alexander Arzumanyan: Border Must Be Opened

A1 Plus | 20:01:12 | 04-06-2004 | Politics |
"Closed border means blockade. It means a state of war with the
neighboring country", member of former Armenian-Turkish commission and
former Armenian Foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanyan said Friday at
a discussion over Armenian-Turkish border opening organized by Youth
Conservative Party.
In his opinion, the problem of Armenian-Turkish relations can be
solved only by the two countries joint efforts. Turkey must recognize
and condemn the fact of Armenian Genocide, he says.
Armenia, for its part, should support Turkey in its aspiration to
join European Union, Arzumanyan says.
In his words, the republic's key problem is that Armenia is Russia's
stronghold and Russian troops are guarding Armenia-Turkey border.
The former minister wonders why Armenia has joined Collective Security
Treaty while not a single of its four neighbors are the Treaty members.
He thinks it would be better to join such security systems where
Turkey, Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Russia are included.
Arzumanyan blamed Armenia's current authorities for making statements
approving the border-opening idea without any precondition but,
in fact, putting forward own demands.
To our correspondent's remark that some demands have been put by
Turkey, Alexander Arzumanyan said Turkey had made many mistakes
throughout the last decade.