11 April 2009, 07:00
Sargsyan expects open Armenian-Turkish border by October
President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan expects that the Armenian-Turkish border will be unblocked by the football match between the teams of the two countries to take place in Turkey on October 7.
Mr Sargsyan has expressed his hope that he will go to Turkey to visit the return match under the 2010 World Cup qualification round already across the open Armenian-Turkish border. However, President of Armenia did not specify whether there is already the respective arrangement with the Turkish party.
Serzh Sargsyan has reiterated that Armenia is ready to start negotiations with Turkey without any preconditions. Such first step was the invitation to President of Turkey to visit the football match in Yerevan without any conditions to discuss political issues. "The ball is in the pitch of Turkey, and we wait for their step in response," Mr Sargsyan concluded, as quoted by the "Tert.am" Agency.
In his turn, on April 10, Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has excluded any opportunity of normalization of Turkish relations with Armenia until Yerevan has settled up its conflict with Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh.
"We shan't sign any agreement with Armenia for lack of their agreement with Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh," said Mr Erdogan, as quoted by the "K2Kapital" Agency.
