Opening of Armenian-Turkish border will provide solution to Armenia's problems, ex Foreign Minister

PanARMENIAN.Net - Protocols on the normalization of Armenian-Turkish ties do not create equal conditions for establishing friendly relations with Turkey, ex-Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan said today in Yerevan, during a discussion devoted to Armenian-Turkish ties. "After getting familiarized with documents it becomes clear that Armenian side was forced to accept either the Protocols or the negotiations over them, based on the idea that Armenia's development and existence depends on border opening. In short, documents pave Turkey's way to what it has been striving for over 17 years,» Oskanyan noted. Current situation, he said, is similar to late 1997 when Armenian authorities were using all possible methods to explain to people that the country could develop without the settlement of Karabakh problem.



«Armenia's economy is currently experiencing 18% downfall. Diaspora has got detached from its motherland. Armenia's not a democratic state. Opening of Armenian-Turkish border will not provide solution to those problems,» Vardan Oskanyan stressed, adding that Armenia's leadership seeks to resolve the country's internal problem beyond its borders but that cannot be achieved by signing Protocols.



In the meantime, ex-Foreign Minister said he was not against Armenian-Turkish rapprochement. Border opening, according to him, is first of all necessary for Ankara considering that Armenian side does not have to make haste. «We might open border in a couple of years, having a much more acceptable and favorable document with Turkey. Besides, publicity of the process became our enemy. We might have conducted talks, agreed on certain points and only thereafter introduced a concrete document to society,» Vardan Oskanyan stated.



Besides, he added, that Ankara has several times pushed Armenia to renounce Protocols.