YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Both Armenia and Turkey are interested in the improvement of bilateral relations, and their interests coincide in this sence, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan stated during an interview with Armenian television companies. As a result of Armenian-Turkish rapprochement, the opportunities of political and economic development are increasing for the two countries, and "Turkey appears to the world as a state with a clear strategy of political and economic reforms, which will become a EU member," the prime minister said. Armenia is also interested in it because in this case it will be "in the vicinity" of the European Union. In his words, "it is important that today the interests of global players coincide with each other and the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations is in the interests of everybody". The prime minister expressed confidence that the border will open sooner or later, however, according to him, "we are interested that it will happen now, as the improvement of political ties between Armenia and Turkey will contribute to the fair resolution of the Karabakh problem and not to the opposite". T. Sargsyan called the Armenian president's initiative aimed at Armenian-Turkish rapprochement a bold step, adding that the head of the country undertook that step after carefully preparing for it: he had conducted consultations with Russia, the U.S, the European Union, some European states, and all the RA ministries and departments were instructed to work out the possible scenarios and an action plan in case of the border's opening and submit them to the government. On the moral and psychological dimension, Armenia's aim is to obtain justice, the only way of achieving which is the recognition of the Genocide by Turkey itself. "In the 21st century, we must think not only on this dimension, but also on the political one because we have independent statehood and we must implement a sound policy aimed at strengthening our state and ensuring the prosperous life of our citizens," T. Sargsyan said. From the economic point of view, the opening of the border is beneficial to both Armenia and Turkey. Both countries have adopted a strategy of establishing a market economy, so they have to remove all the obstacles to the normal development of the market economy. The prime minister said Armenia's private sector is better prepared for the border opening as there have been contacts in conditions of the closed borders. After the border is open, the trade with Turkey will be conducted not via Georgia, but directly, which will result in a 15% fall of transport charges, creating qualitatively new conditions for importers. The prime minister assured the reporters that letters have already been received from Europe: people express their interest and readiness to invest in infrastructures in case of positive developments. "Today we have only one way to export and import goods, which is highly expensive. Georgia takes advantage of that, and the cost of commodity transportation is unfairly high," the prime minister noted. The border's opening and the operation of the railway will be a hard blow to the monopolies as well. Because of high transport charges, only big business can engage in export and import, whereas the open border will create favorable conditions for small and medium business. The prime minister attached great importance to the improvement of tax and customs administration in order to efficiently fight monopolies.

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