Signature campaign for opening Armenian-Turkish border completed

PanARMENIAN.Net - Signature campaign for the petition urging Turkey to open the border with Armenia for Syrian Armenians is completed.

776 signatures were collected in 30 days, with 25 thous. needed for Obama administration to discuss the issue.

As one of the campaign organizers Daniel Ionisian told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, the number of the signatures collected didn’t justify the expectations.

“On the one hand, it’s not that easy to participate in signature campaign. On the other hand, many in Armenia are against the opening of the border with Turkey,” Mr Ionisian said, adding that attempts will be taken to raise awareness on the issue following the presidential polls.

“More than 60.000 people have been killed in Syria war. 500.000 refugees have escaped from war and death...Yet many millions are unable to do that.

Only few air companies still fly there and tickets are strongly limited. People mostly flee Syria by buses and cars.

There are 200.000 Syria-based ethnic Armenians; most of them willing to escape to Armenia where they can feel safe, comfortable, with accommodation, employment and education opportunities provided.

Тhe road from Syria to Armenia goes through Turkey which closed its border with Armenia in 1993. It causes a big problem for Armenian refugees.

Thus, we are kindly asking to urge Turkey to open the land border with Armenia (at least, for refugees) without any preconditions.

There should be no closed borders in the 21 century,” the petition read.