RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan does not rule out the possibility of Armenia-Turkey border opening in 2009. According to him, it depends on how the parties’ will respect the agreements and go ahead. “Armenia respects the agreements reached with other countries,” Nalbandyan informed Russian Kommersant daily, expressing hope that Armenian and Turkish Parliaments will ratify Oct. 10 signed Protocols within reasonable time.

According to Nalbandyan, Armenina-Turkish normalization process commenced on Serzh Sargsyan’s initiative who invited his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul to Yerevan for Armenia-Turkey football match in September, 2008. “Since then the talks opened and more than 10 meetings between Armenian and Turkish Foreign Ministers were held. The talks on the Protocols were concluded in February and initialed on April 2, 2009. On August 31, 2009 Yerevan and Ankara announced the launching of internal political consultations lasting six weeks to sign the Protocols and their further ratification,” Nalbandyan stated.