Opening border with Turkey to harm Armenia’s agriculture – Robert Kocharyan

Opening border with Turkey will seriously harm Armenia’s agriculture, Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan said at the meeting with his supporters.

“We cannot claim that closed border is a good thing. It is not normal for us to try to propagate that keeping the borders closed is a good phenomenon, but one thing is clear, opening the border today with Turkey will seriously harm our agriculture, as our agricultures are competitors,” he said.

Kocharyan said it is obvious that Turkey’s agriculture is in better condition as its government provides bigger subsidies to its agriculture.

“In Armenia it is not almost being done. The elimination of ministry of agriculture left the sector ownerless,” he said.

The ex-president stressed that if the border opens now the situation of farmers of Ararat valley will simply be awful.