Turkey preparing to demine its border with Armenia – newspaper says

YEREVAN, November 29. / ARKA /. Turkey is preparing to demine some sectors of its border with Armenia amid ongoing diplomatic discussions on the opening of the border, closed since 1993, Russian RIA Novosti reported citing a Turkish newspaper ‘Turkiye’.

Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said November 7 that Turkey was ready to open its border with Armenia and resume rail links provided the return of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan. According to him, preparatory construction work to this end was underway near the Turkish city of Idgir on the Armenian-Turkish border.

According to Turkish interior ministry, Ankara plans to demine a territory of four million square meters of 11.6 million square meters. For this, the government expects to receive 52.4 million euros from EU that will cover 75 % of the project’s cost. Another 25% of the required amount will be provided by Turkish defense ministry. The project also envisages instalment of new equipment to border posts.

Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations; the border between the two countries was closed in 1993 by Ankara. Relations between Armenia and Turkey remain tense because of Ankara’s biased stance on Karabakh problem and its painful reaction to Armenia’s efforts to obtain worldwide recognition of the fact of Armenian Genocide. -0-