The opening of the Armenian-Turkish border will be useful for Turkey, French Secretary of State for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche told Euronews.
In this interview the French official spoke of the Armenian-Turkish, Russian-US, Russian-Georgian relations, Karabakh conflict and so on.
Answering the question from the journalist who said “France is the Minsk Group co-chair mediating the Karabakh conflict settlement. Are you satisfied with the cooperation with the two other chairmen including Russia and the United States in the resolution of the conflict that has been smouldering for already many years?”, Lellouche said:
“The reason of the conflict smouldering lies in the peripeties of internal policy… We have always supported the initiatives of Turkish Gul in the sphere of football diplomacy with Armenia. The side even concluded an agreement that was not ratified. We want the sides to find a compromise via dialogue. This is also related to Azerbaijan- a state with a strong economic potential. In addition, the conflict breeds refugees and they also need this solution”.
As for the question about Turkish initiatives regarding this regional conflict, he said:
“I have repeatedly asked Turks to open the land border with Armenia. As you know, the countries maintain air contacts. Turkey would benefit from opening the border with Armenia and not making an enclave of it. Thus, I expect Turkey to take this step being aware of the difficulty it represents considering Turkey’s ethnic and religious solidarity with Azerbaijan and the uneasy problem of refugees”.
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