Border dwellers’ hopes rising

Armenian villagers eager for trade with Turkey as countries sign landmark reconciliation deal

Local resident Zaven Margarian works in the Armenian farming village of Margara, near the Turkish border.

By Michael Mainville - Agence France-Presse

MARGARA - Hopes are running high in the impoverished Armenian farming village of Margara as Armenia and Turkey edge closer to opening their sealed border.

Only 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Yerevan, Margara is home to the closest border crossing to Turkey from the Armenian capital, a potentially hugely important trade link that could transform this sleepy village.

Among local residents, most of whom are subsistence farmers growing grapes, eggplants and tomatoes, all the talk is of new jobs, new businesses and soaring property prices.

«We've been waiting years for this, enough time has passed... People are already preparing,» said Jora Aleksanian, 55, whose home is only 200 meters from the Turkish border.

Armenia and Turkey are expected to sign two landmark protocols today to normalize ties and develop relations, in a major step toward ending nearly a century of hostility over World War I-era massacres of Armenians under Ottoman rule.

The protocols will then need to be ratified by the two countries' parliaments, after which the border is expected to open within two months.

The deal has been controversial, with many Armenians saying Turkey should admit the massacres constituted genocide - as Armenians have long argued - before Yerevan signs off.

But supporters say opening the border is essential to helping Armenia's economy, which has struggled from deep isolation since the country won independence from the Soviet Union nearly two decades ago.

Turkey closed the border in 1993 in solidarity with ally Azerbaijan over Yerevan's backing of ethnic Armenian separatists in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. The Azerbaijani border is also closed, leaving only the frontiers with Georgia and Iran open for trade.

Economists predict a huge boost for the Armenian economy if the border with Turkey reopens, and nowhere is anticipation higher than in Margara.

Home to about 1,500 people, the village hosts a bridge built in 1961 over the Araks River dividing Armenia and Turkey. In the years since, the bridge has been used only once - for a few days in the early 1990s to allow international aid groups to deliver humanitarian assistance.

Residents are now hoping to soon see truckloads of goods passing back and forth.

«If the border opens there will be new jobs, for example with the customs service, and there will be small restaurants, shops and cafes. It will be very good for us,» said the head of the village council, Khachatur Asatrian.

Aleksanian said he is hoping to set up a small shop once the border opens and that many other villagers are eager to set up businesses. Entrepreneurs from Yerevan are already buying up land in Margara, he said, and property prices have nearly doubled in recent months.

«Enough time has passed, we should reach out our hands to each other,» he said. «It's the 21st century, the time for closed borders is over.» Not everyone in Margara is so keen to see the border open. After decades of animosity, suspicions run deep and some residents said they would prefer to have nothing to do with their neighbors on the other side.

«I don't know what will happen when the border opens,» said villager Angin Kharupetian, 52. «But from history we know that the Turks have always been our enemies.» But Aleksanian said most villagers are keen not only to boost trade, but also to meet their Turkish neighbors after generations of division. Margara residents can see a Turkish village on the other side of the border, he said, but have never had any contact with it.

«We have no idea what there is on the other side of the border, we have absolutely no communication with them,» he said. «It will be interesting for us to see how our neighbors live.»

PARIS (AFP) - Turkish President Abdullah Gul yesterday told his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy that Ankara would welcome GDF Suez back to the EU-led Nabucco pipeline project after it was sidelined in 2008, officials said. Meeting with Gul at the Elysee Palace, Sarkozy «said he hoped French companies can fully take part, in particular GDF Suez,» a French official said. Gul assured him that «French companies are welcome in the project» although he stressed that Turkey was only one of six international partners building the 3,300-kilometer (2,050-mile) pipeline, the official said.

YEREVAN (AFP) - Several thousand Armenians took to the streets of the capital Yerevan yesterday to protest against the government's plans to sign a landmark deal on normalizing ties with Turkey.

Carrying placards reading «No Concessions to the Turks,» the protesters were marching from central Yerevan to a hilltop memorial to World War I-era massacres of Armenians under Ottoman rule, an AFP reporter saw.

Armenia and Turkey are expected to sign two landmark protocols today to normalize ties and reopen their border, in a major step toward ending nearly a century of hostility over the massacres.

In a statement handed over to Armenia's presidency, the protesters urged President Serzh Sarkisian not to sign the deal.

«These protocols contain some very dangerous points for our nation and for our state, which threaten our interests,» the statement said. The protesters said Sarkisian would «be held responsible for the unpredictable consequences» if the deal is signed.