Demining works have started on the Armenian-Turkish border. This is reported by the Turkish “GazeteKars” news agency. According to the news agency, after the start of the process of normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey after the third Artsakh war, “concrete steps have also been taken”.
On the agenda is the opening of the “Doğukapı” border crossings, which include both the road and railway network, and the “Alican” border crossings, which have only road traffic. On the other hand, according to the news agency, a seminar was organized on the so-called “Zangezur Corridor”, but it is not mentioned which body organized it and when.
According to the publication of the Kars newspaper, an Israeli company is carrying out demining works on the Armenian-Turkish border. It has been announced that demining works have been going on for about 20 days in the area of Ibiş village of Akyaka region of Kars, but it is not known which department organized it and when.Let’s remind that on July 1, Armenian and Turkish envoys Ruben Rubinyan and Serdar Kılıch agreed to ensure the opportunity to cross the Armenia-Turkey land border in the shortest possible time for the citizens of third countries visiting Armenia and Turkey and decided to start the necessary processes in that direction.They also agreed to start Armenia-Turkey direct air cargo transportation as soon as possible. And on July 7, the de-facto Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, during the regular session of the Government of the Republic of Armenia, addressed this agreement and made a call: “Now, it is very important for our departments to work with the relevant departments of Turkey, because the political agreement is an agreement, but their implementation depends on this work. My task is to work in a coordinated manner so that we can implement the agreements reached as soon as possible.”
In an interview given on July 8, Edmon Marukyan, RA Ambassador with Special Assignments, essentially confirming that the border will be opened for citizens of third countries, referred to the comments that “the border is being opened for Azerbaijanis”. Marukyan noted: “If Armenian-Azerbaijani relations are settled as soon as the Armenian-Turkish border opens, and Azerbaijanis start crossing the territory of Armenia, yes, they can also cross.” In his speech, also referring to the benefits of being a “transit country” and citing Georgia as an example, Marukyan noted: “If Batumi is so bad, why do hundreds of thousands of Armenians go to Batumi for vacation?”
Since the collapse of the USSR, Turkey has been trying to create its own military-political and socio-cultural sphere of influence in the South Caucasus, within which it has created many infrastructures in Azerbaijan and Georgia. With these initiatives, official Ankara pursues a political goal to make the mentioned countries fully dependent on Turkey.The dominant political ideology in Turkey, Islamic nationalism, which is joined by parties and individual politicians of the ruling coalition represented in the parliament, implies the establishment of military and political power of Turkey in the former territories of the Ottoman Empire, which border modern Turkey and are today the territories of independent states (Georgia, Armenia, Syria, Iraq, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece, etc.).In this direction, Turkey has also initiated several military operations, actually conquering significant parts of the sovereign territories of neighboring states (Alexandret province of Syria (1938-1939), northern regions of Cyprus (1974), northern regions of Syria (2016-2022) , Iraq (2007-2022).
