Turkey to clear mines from the border with Armenia; what next?

Baku/10.02.14/Turan-ArmInfo: The border territory in eastern Turkey is to be cleared of mines, they will be replaced by a modern system of alerts. According to the Turkish newspaper Aksam, 75 % of the costs are assumed by the EU.

According to the same source, clearing the border territories of mines has already begun and is carried out jointly by the General Staff and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Turkey. As a result, an area of 11,665,641 square meters has been completely cleared, after which there will be introduced a modern system of notification. Any cases of illegal border crossings will be stopped by 26 search and observation cars.

The budget of the project is 52.45 million euros, while three-quarters of this amount will come from the EU budget. The paper wonders if the mine clearing will be followed by opening the border with Armenia.

It is likely that the border will be opened in the event of return by Armenia to Azerbaijan of some of the occupied territories. After that it will be possible to set up rail transportation between Turkey and Armenia, indicates the source, recalling the active construction work being carried out on the border with Armenia in the Igdir province.-02D-