Flight route to be launched between Yerevan and Van

Armenian and Turkish entrepreneurs met on July 22 in Yerevan in the framework of the program of "Promoting the advancement of the Armenian-Turkish relations", funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the "Eurasia" Foundation. All in all, 30 businessmen from the Turkish city of Van and representatives of the Armenian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (UIE) agreed on the establishment of the Association of Armenian and Turkish tourism companies. CSE Chairman Arsen Ghazarian said that the signing of the document will help to develop the bilateral economic relations and create a field of activity for businessmen of both countries in the circumstances of political "frozen relations," with business relations playing an important role in breaking the ice.

The intention of Turkish businessmen to open direct flights between Yerevan and Van in the near future was one of the main topics of the meeting. A member of the board of the Chamber of Commerce of Van, head of the travel agency "Tursab," Abdullah Tyundzhdemir, said that, provided everything goes according to plan, the first flight will take place on September 11.

In 1993, Turkey closed the Armenian-Turkish land border. At the present moment, the only regular flights operating between Armenia and Turkey are the flights between Yerevan and Istanbul. Participants at the meeting were unanimous that the opening of a second flight route between Armenia and Turkey will contribute to the development of contacts.

However, according to a member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies Ruben Safrastyan, at the present moment there is no indication that Turkey is radically revising its policy regarding Armenia. "At the present moment there is the following situation: without changing

fundamentally its policy towards Armenia, Turkey put forward some initiatives that are not crucial for the further development of Armenian-Turkish relations. At the same time, I am not quite sure that the projected route between Yerevan and Van will work. It seems to me that the economic component of this initiative is poorly thought out."Safrastyan doubts that there is enough passengers for regular flights: "Maybe there will be some charter flights, at certain times of the year, but I do not think that there would be enough passengers to make this flight route profitable. And if there is no economic benefit , then this initiative has no chance of being realized."

Some observers in Armenia are of the opinion that the initiative to open a route between Yerevan and Van is a PR campaign by Ankara after the recent visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Turkey. Turkey wants to show the world that it is ready for normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, as well as for advance steps in this direction. In fact, the Turkish government wants to force Armenia to make political concessions.

There is no doubt that Armenia will economically benefit from the opening of the border and normalization of relations with Turkey. It is also true that the large Turkish capital is unlikely to be interested in the small Armenian market, but Armenia will benefit from the development of border trade, as well as people living in the

eastern regions of Turkey. Ankara declares the necessity of concessions from Armenia, considering that it is mostly in Armenia's interests to normalize relations between the two countries. In Yerevan, it is argued that the historical background makes the establishment of diplomatic relations more advantageous to Turkey,  which seeks to show itself at its best to the world community. However, during the 20-year blockade, Armenian businessmen have managed to find alternative ways for economic development and alternative economic relations. They have managed to establish a commercial and economic infrastructure bypassing Turkey and established trade and economic ties with Russia, Arab countries, the Ukraine, as well as (to a lesser extent) with the EU countries. In the current reality, the opening of the borders is no longer on the agenda of Armenia. 

Susanna Petrosian, Armenia. Exclusively for VK