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Professor Yusuf Halacoglu: â€œNo government has the power to reopen Turkey-Armenia bordersâ€

08 April 2009 11:40 (UTC +04:00)

Diplomatic attempts should be accepted normally,â€ one of the leaders of the struggle against Armenian genocide claims, former chief of Turkish Historical Society, Professor Yusuf Halacoglu told APAâ€™s Turkey bureau. He said it was very important to solve the problem through discussions.
â€œOf course, nobody should expect Turkey to reopen the borders, while Azerbaijani territories are under occupation. It will cause severe reaction of Turkish public. I do not think that the government will do it. Tats why, there is no ground to worry. Azerbaijan should hold discussions on this issue with Turkey. Apart from Azerbaijan and Turkey, the United States is also interested in this issue. In order to establish stability in the region the US wants Armenia to be involved in the agreements signed up to now and has some demands from Turkey. The main thing is â€“ no agreement can be signed, unless the occupied Azerbaijani territories are released and Nagorno Karabakh obtains its previous status,â€ he said.

Yusuf Halacoglu repeated the words he said in Gars a few days ago.
â€œI repeated there that our borders are our honor. There will be no peace in the region, until Armenia releases the occupied Azerbaijani territories, because in this case everybody will occupy the territory of another country. Basing on this logic, Turkey may also occupy Armenia. So, everybody should respect borders. If we do not admit the so-called genocide, Armenia may slander as much as it wishes. Armenia may not accept our borders, either. Armenia has no power to change out borders. What will happen, if Armenia does not accept our borders, while the whole world accepts? Therefore, Armenia should release the occupied territories. The discussions following it are mush easier,â€ he said.