Georgia pessimistic about open border

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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"The Turkey-Armenia border is not expected to reopen," reported the Azeri Press Agency. Asked how much the Turkey-initiated Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform helped cooperation in the region, the Georgian minister said: "There are no relations between Georgia and Russia, between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Despite this, Turkey wants everybody to be reconciled.

But it is impossible to achieve peace within this format. Such issues require serious preparation, long and complicated work. Another issue is that each party of the negotiations should realize that there would be no peace in the Caucasus unless the norms of international law are obeyed. Our region is small. There is no place for a third, fourth or 18th state here."

Discussions in Tehran

Meanwhile, upon the request of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Armenian President Serge Sarkisian spoke about the development of the Armenia-Turkey political dialogue and the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mediamax reported, according to the Azerbaijan-based Trend News Agency.

During a visit to Iran, the Armenian president thanked his Iranian counterpart for Tehran's balanced approach to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. "Discussions over the large infrastructure projects testify to our vision of further enhancing and deepening Armenia-Iran friendly relations," the Armenian president said. "Turkey brilliantly accomplished its objectives in the first round of negotiations ostensibly to open the border with Armenia," commented the Armenian Weekly, adding that since 1993, Turkey set two main preconditions for opening border: stop pursuing international recognition of the ’genocide’ and return Karabakh to Azerbaijan. "Despite persistent Turkish attempts to impose such harsh terms on Armenia, successive Armenian governments have declared that diplomatic relations should be established and the border reopened without any preconditions," the newspaper said. "Thus, the standstill continues until today."