Remember when we thought that the prospect of Turkish troops going to Armenia, through a temporarily opened border, for a NATO exercise was a further step toward rapprochement between the two countries? Well, never mind. For all the enthusiasm Turkey apparently held for the idea, it was less popular among Armenian officials, who quickly rejected the notion:
The Armenian Foreign Ministry refrained from officially commenting on the possibility of a temporary border opening. But a diplomatic source in Yerevan shrugged off the Turkish statement as "a public-relations stunt aimed at burnishing Turkey's image."
"Armenia has no desire to contribute to that effort," the source, who asked not to be identified, told RFE/RL. The Armenian government might refuse to let any personnel or vehicles enter the country from Turkey during the exercise, he added.
Other Armenian officials went on the record rejecting the Turkish reports:
The talks on a temporary opening of the Armenian-Turkish border during the NATO military drills to be held on September 11-17 in Armenia are groundless, assure correspondents of the RA Ministry of Emergency Situations with which NATO is organizing this year's military drills.
During the initial and final planning conferences organized within the framework of the NATO military drills, there was no mention of the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border. The Armenian, North-Atlantic and Turkish delegations didn't even make a proposal," Deputy Director of Armenia's Rescue Service of the RA Ministry of Emergency Situations Sergey Azaryan told "A1+".
And soon after, Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said there would be no border opening, and suggested that not just Armenia was unhappy about the idea, but Azerbaijan, too:
“There is no such thing as the opening of the border. It is not on the government’s agenda and reports to that effect are wrong,” Davutoğlu told reporters on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting....
Davutoğlu had talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, while in Almaty, during which the border issue came up. “I have told Elmar as well that there is no such thing as a border opening pending. No one should have any such expectations,” he said.
So, as seems often is the case with Turkey-Armenia reconciliation, it's two steps forward, one step back. But it appears that Turkish troops will still participate in Armenia (traveling through Georgia, presumably), which is still something...
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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