BOTH ARMENIA AND TURKEY TO BENEFIT FROM OPENING OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH BORDER

PanARMENIAN.Net - The opening of the Armenian-Turkish border will be beneficial not only for Armenia but also for Turkey, Director of Armenian European Policy Legal and Advice Center (AEPLAC) Tigran Jrbashian stated when presenting the results of the investigation entitled "Economic Consequences of the Opening of the Armenian-Turkish border for Armenia". According to the research, the opening of the border will first of all allow reducing transport expenses, increasing the commodity turnover and volume of export. It will also contribute to the level of the Gross Domestic Product and employment. At the same time the opening of the roads will allow to use Turkey's transit ways and have the outlet to the Mediterranean, thus obtaining real possibilities of integration into the European structures. Turkey in its turn will have the possibility to use the Armenian transit ways and benefit from the reconstruction of the Kars-Gyumri railway. The trade growth and development of eastern regions of Turkey can also be expected. According to Jrbashian the investigation was carried out on the basis of possible short-term economic development (1 year) and medium-term development (5 years). The short-tern variant provides for certain growth of trade volume and reduction of transport expenses, as result, the volume of export will exceed the GDP. The average-term variant can provide intensive use of Turkish transit ways, considerable growth of the commodity turnover, reduction of prices for Turkish goods and increase of export to Turkey, EU states, America and Middle East. Long-term development (over 5 years) will allow speaking of interrelation of the Armenian and Turkish markets and strengthening of competition.