Gnel Sanosyan: Opening border with Turkiye is  big political process

ArmInfo.Obviously, the opening of the land border with Turkiye will reduce kilometers, costs, but  this is a big political process. Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of Armenia Gnel Sanosyan said in his another interview.

He noted that the department continues consistent work in the context  of improving the quality of road infrastructures. "We must bring the  infrastructure into proper condition so that in the event of such a  prospect (opening the border - ed note), the latter would be usable,"  the minister stressed.

At the same time, Sanosyan noted that the reconstruction of the road  from the Margara bridge was started much earlier than the statements  of intention to open the border with Turkey were announced, since  interstate roads are a priority for the Ministry. And the bridge  itself, according to him, is operable. The only problem is that the  construction of the bridge is narrow and the traffic on it is  one-way, which provides for the establishment of a traffic queue in  the event of a border opening.

"The issue of expanding the bridge was considered, but this is not  yet an effective solution. If everything goes to the fact that the  border opens and there is a large flow of cars, I see the right  solution in building a new bridge," he said.

Earlier, Turkiye's special representative in the negotiations on the  settlement of relations between Armenia and Turkey, Serdar Kilic,  said in January of this year that Armenia and Turkey had reached an  agreement to give a new impetus to the work on opening the border for  citizens of third countries. "Regarding the opening of the border for  third-country nationals, our minister mentioned in his speech that an  agreement had been reached to give a new impetus to work on this  issue. The two ministers came to this agreement, and we will do our  best to start operating the Margara bridge as soon as possible," said  the special envoy of Turkiye, presenting the results of the meeting  of the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Turkey in Ankara.

Diplomatic sources of ArmInfo familiar with the situation previously  reported that in mid-summer the Armenian-Turkish border will already  begin to receive citizens of third countries. "Probably, starting  from July 1 of this year, if nothing prevents us, a checkpoint on the  Armenian-Turkish border will be activated," the diplomatic source  said, adding that other processes launched within the framework of  the Armenian- Turkish normalization will follow.

The start of the normalization process was announced on December 13,  2021 by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. At the same time,  he stressed that Ankara will act in coordination with Azerbaijan  regarding steps to normalize relations with Armenia. After that,  several rounds of negotiations took place between the special  representatives of Armenia and Turkiye.