Pierre Lellouche: Turks have everything to gain by opening border with ArmeniaJuly 15, 2010 - 18:43 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - French Minister for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche said that the Karabakh conflict resolution is mainly stalled by internal politics. “And we encourage the press, and local politicians – on one hand the Turkish side and on the other the Armenian side. We very much supported President Gul’s football diplomacy with Armenia. We saw, there was an agreement. Then, sadly, the agreement was not ratified. We very much want these countries to reach a solution through negotiation. It’s the same for Azerbaijan, which has a real economic potential. They must admit there are refugees, and find solutions,” the French Minister for European Affairs said. Answering the question if Turkey’s efforts can help resolve this situation, Pierre Lellouche said: “I have been asking them to open the land frontier for a long time. You know that the air frontier is open. And the Turks have everything to gain by opening the border with Armenia, by not cutting this country off. So I hope that Turkey will do this, but of course it’s difficult, when many refugees remain in Azerbaijan, and they have religious and ethnic affinities with them,” Euronews reported. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |