OPENING FRONTIER WITH TURKEY TO JEOPARDIZE INTERESTS OF ARMENIA, ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT VICE SPEAKER CONSIDERS

PanARMENIAN.Net - Relations with Turkey, "especially the opening of the borders", are not the priority for Armenia. Vice speaker of the Armenian parliament, "Dashnaktsutyun" Armenian Revolutionary Federation board member Vahan Hovhannisian told journalists today. As reported by "Arka" agency, in his words, Armenia has considerable domestic resources such as struggle against corruption and political system reform, which can allow it to accelerate development without opening the frontier. The vice speaker considers that the Armenian-Turkish border opening in the present situation and under the suggested conditions will jeopardize the interests of Armenia. As the result of the frontier opening, he noted, the Armenian market will be filled with cheap Turkish goods, with which the commodities of the native production will hardly compete. Raising of the blockade will be profitable for Armenia only in case it becomes the transit country, V. Hovhannisian stated. Otherwise, he considers, the Turkish railway will simply become longer and Armenia will join the eastern Turkish markets. The opening of the road, in the vice speaker words, will allow Turkey to create the corresponding structures in these weakly developed regions thus making its profit greater than the advantages expected for Armenia.