Azeri MP: Turkey will not change its position on opening of Turkish-Armenian border

• Wednesday, January 9, 19:12

 Turkey will not change its position on opening of its border with Armenia, Deputy Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliamentary Security and Defense Committee Aydin Mirzazade said when commenting on the petition launched on the US President Obama Administration's web page calling to open the Turkish-Armenian border at least for the refugees from Syria, Trend says.

Though 20 years have passed since the closure of the border and the governments in Turkey have changed, the position on this issue has not been and will not be changed, Mirzazade said. 

He pointed out that a certain group of Armenia regularly raises the issue of opening of the Turkish- Armenian border, however, it is nothing but an initiative. He said that Turkey has a democratic society and the issue of opening of the Turkish-Armenian border may be introduced for discussion, but Mirzazade does not think that this issue may be widely supported. 

The MP thinks that the policy conducted by Armenia has a negative effect on Armenia itself; therefore, one can say that no such initiative will be successful.

For its part, the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) of Turkey reported that there is no need for move of Syrian refugees from Turkey to Armenia, and today it is impossible to open the Turkish-Armenian border for that purpose. AFAD said that the needs of the Syrian refugees in Turkey are satisfied by Turkey and international structures.     

To remind, earlier a petition was launched on the US President Obama Administration's web page calling to open the Turkish-Armenian border. The petition calls on the government of Turkey to open its border with Armenia for refugees from Syria. The petition says that more than 60.000 people have been killed in the war in Syria.  500.000 refugees have escaped from war and death... But many millions are unable to do that. Only few air companies still fly there and tickets are strongly limited. Mostly, people escape from Syria by buses and cars. There are 200.000 ethnic Armenians living in Syria and most of them want to escape to Armenia where they can feel safe, comfortable, find a job, a place to live and go to schools. The road from Syria to Armenia goes through Turkey, which closed its border with Armenia in 1993. It creates a big problem for Armenian refugees. Thus, the organizers kindly ask to call Turkey to open the land
border with Armenia (at least, for refugees) without any preconditions. There shouldn't be closed borders in the 21-st century, the petition says.