Armenia to acquire increasingly important role in region after opening border with Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - After ratification of Protocols and opening of borders, Armenia will acquire an increasingly important role in the region, according to Stepan Grigoryan, Head of Analytical Center for Globalization and Regional Cooperation.



"Turkey is very much interested in the ratification of protocols since following the August 2008 war the situation in the region changed, making Turkey review its policy towards South Caucasian countries," he told Thursday a news conference in Yerevan.



At that, he noted that Armenia will assume a leading role, becoming a transit route in South Caucasian countries' Euro-integration process.



The protocols, according to Armenian expert, will be very probably ratified before April 24. "Before the ratification of the documents and opening of Armenian-Turkish border, Armenia must prevent third forces from linking Armenian-Turkish process with Nagorno Karabakh issue," he stressed.



The protocols aimed at normalization of bilateral ties and opening of the common border between Armenia and Turkey were signed in Zurich by Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on October 10, 2009, after a series of diplomatic talks held through Swiss mediation.



On January 12, 2010, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia found the protocols conformable to the country's Organic Law.