U.S. official says opening Turkey’s border with Armenia would bring benefits

A top U.S. diplomat said in Armenia on Friday that if Turkey opened its

border with this ex-Soviet republic, the benefits would be swift and

plentiful – a view at odds with Azerbaijan’s warning this week against

such a move.

“It seems to me that the opening of the border between Armenia and Turkey

would benefit the peoples of both sides rather dramatically and rather

quickly,” said Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, during a visit

to the Armenian capital, Yerevan.

Armenia and Azerbaijan are at odds over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave,

which Armenian forces seized from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. A 1994

cease-fire has largely held, but no final settlement has been reached.

Turkey, which is allied with Azerbaijan, has maintained a trade

embargo against neighboring Armenia, and has pledged not to lift it until

the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is settled. Azerbaijan views that embargo as

a key part of its negotiating leverage.

But in recent years Turkey and Armenia have expanded business

contacts, and settling the dispute would boost Turkey’s candidacy to join

the European Union.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev warned this week that opening the

border would make the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh impossible, and he

urged Turkey to resist what he called strong pressure.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage refused to comment

directly on Aliev’s statement.

He said that the United States has discussed the issue with Turkey.

“I think to be fair, our Turkish friends have had their hands full

recently with concerns about northern Iraq and the ongoing Cyprus

talks, but I hope as those concerns are ameliorated that they will be able

to turn their attention to the reopening of the border,”

Armitage said.

He also warned that the solution to Nagorno-Karabakh can’t “be

imposed from top-down, from the outside.”

Associated Press Worldstream March 26, 2004 Friday 1:48 PM Eastern Time