The Socio-Economic Outcomes Of Opening The Armenian-Turkish Border

On December 3rd there was organized a discussion at CSI about the socio-economic outcomes of opening the Armenian-Turkish border. There were present students, representatives of international and local non-governmental organizations, experts and Turkish journalist Sefa Kaplan. During the discussion the Armenian International Economic Research Group (AIPRG) presented the outcomes of the scientific conference, which was organized in Yerevan in 2007, under the title “The socio-economic outcomes of opening the Armenian-Turkish border”, and which were introduced also in Istanbul and Ankara. The discussion was mostly about the positive and negative impacts that the opening of Armenian-Turkish border can have on Armenia. For example the role of growing import of products and financial resources into Armenia was emphasized specially. Besides this, having this border closed has its psychological effect, and at the same time, how much are the two sides ready to reform their relations? They also discussed about what are the official steps taken for opening this border, and what are the offers that the two sides come up with?

The discussion was organized within the frames of “Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution Resource Center” program