NATO hopes Armenian-Turkish border will be opened

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Turkey is a NATO member-state, while Armenia just participates in programs of the Alliance, and in this respect the organization cannot influence on relations between both countries," head of NATO's Defense Planning and Operations Division George Katsirdakis stated to the PanARMENIAN.Net journalist. He said, however, this does not mean that small Armenia cannot stand against large Turkey. "Armenia participates in NATO programs, including "Partnership for Peace" program, as well as Armenia-NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP). All member-states of the Alliance support Armenia and I hope very much that the problem of normalizing the relations between both countries will be resolved. It's difficult for me to say what exactly hampers the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations -the Nagorno Karabakh problem or the Armenian Genocide. But in any case it is necessary to build bridges, organize meetings. There exists one more aspect here -the economic and strategic cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan and I think this too may serve as a barrier. Nevertheless, NATO hopes Armenian-Turkish border will be opened," Katsirdakis underscored.