Ahmet Davutoglu: Turkey won’t open border with Armenia during NATO exercise

August 27, 2010 - 12:47 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Turkey will not open its border gate with Armenia temporarily during an upcoming exercise of NATO, signaling a reversal of earlier statements that it was under consideration, Today’s Zaman reported.

“This exercise is for entirely humanitarian purposes and it is about extraordinary circumstances. As a NATO member Turkey will, of course, participate in it,” Davutoglu told reporters in the Dogansehir district of the central Anatolian province of Konya, when asked to comment about Azerbaijani opposition to a temporary opening of the Turkish-Armenian border.

“As I have told the Azeri media earlier, opening of the border, even temporarily, is out of the question. Unnecessary rumors should be avoided,” Davutoglu said.

Davutoglu’s statement is an about-face in Turkish policy as Foreign Ministry officials have earlier confirmed that Ankara will participate in a disaster response Armenia 2010 exercise organized by NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center (EADRCC) slated for Sept. 11-17.