Domestic

Home page

Domestic

RAND Corporation: Reopening the Turkish-Armenian border, is only likely after a settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh dispute

23 April 2008 12:07 (UTC +04:00)

The report says that Turkeyâ€™s relations with Azerbaijan and Georgia have improved significantly.
â€œHowever, the countryâ€™s relations with Armenia remain strained as Turkey refuses to recognize massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide,â€ the report says.
The author of the reports Stephen Larrabee says that Armeniaâ€™s continuing occupation of Nagorno Karabakh poses another obstacle to better Turkish-Armenian relations.
â€œIn 1993, in response, Turkey closed its border with Armenia and suspended efforts to establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan. Turkey has made settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict a precondition for the normalization of relations with Armenia. Recently, under U.S. pressure, Ankara and Yerevan have quietly begun to explore ways to improve relations. However, while some small progress has been made in improving relations, any major breakthrough, such as reopening the Turkish-Armenian border, is only likely after a settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh disputeâ€, the report says.