YEREVAN. – Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s statement, with respect to the reopening of the Armenian-Turkish border, does not represent anything real in itself.  

Armenia’s National Academy of Sciences Institute of Orientology Director, turkologist Ruben Safrastyan told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am. 

In Safrastyan’s conviction, this is yet another part of the game which Turkey plays.

“The game is the following: ‘We want to open the Armenian-Turkish border, but Azerbaijan is against it, and therefore the border is not opened.’ So there is nothing new here, and Davutoglu [just] repeated what he had always said,” the analyst stressed.    

To the query as to why this statement was made at this time, the turkologist responded that this is linked to the resumption of Turkey’s EU accession talks and the approaching 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.     

He also expressed a view that the reopening of the railway link between Armenia and Turkey likewise is not possible, since there are no real prerequisites.

“But the Turkish side will attempt to ‘score points’ with such statements,” Ruben Safrastyan concluded. 

To note, Turkish FM Ahmet Davutoglu had confirmed that they were carrying out activities to open the boundary. “If we can convince Azerbaijan, we could make a surprise. Work is conducted on the border with Armenia. Our activities toward 2015 [i.e., the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide] are in progress, too. “Our demand is that they [that is, the Armenian troops] withdraw from Karabakh. If there is a progress in this matter, both the border and the railway will open. Of course, we want to do this together with Azerbaijan,” the Turkish FM had said.