Armenia needs to resolve relations with Turkey for the sake of the economy, the first counsellor in the EU delegation to Armenia has said.
Onno Simons told a round table in Yerevan that “The Armenian-Turkish border may be compared with an 'iron border' and there is no progress as the historical events of 1915 dominate relations.”
Onno Simons stated this during the round table organized by the Caucasus Institute and Foreign Ministry of Finland in Yerevan today.
“The settlement of relations is important for the two sides. It’s important for Armenia from the economic viewpoint as emigration in the country has reached considerable proporations," Simons said.
Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Institute, which organized the round table together with the Finnish Foreign Ministry, said that no-one thought the Armenian-Turkish protocols on rapprochement would be ratified in the near future. “But this doesn’t mean we should rule out discussions on this subject as well,” he said.
A representative of Turkey's Economic Policy Research Foundation (TEPAV), Burcu Gültekin Punsmann, said that ratification of the protocols was of historical significance for Turkey. However, Turkey is currently more concerned with other problems, the unstable situation in the Near East in particular.
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