YEREVAN (Novosti-Armenia), May 17—The Turkish entrepreneurs who first took part in the 10th annual international tourism exhibition in Yerevan Country of Talking Stones – CTS-2010 are dissatisfied with the closure of the Armenian-Turkish border.

“We have a negative attitude to the closure of the border and want it opened. There may be difficulties in political relations, but there aren’t any in the trade relations,” said Orhan Demir, the representative of the Chamber of Commerce of the Turkish province Van.

The Armenian-Turkish border has been closed since 1993 on the initiative of official Ankara. The complex relationship between the two countries are caused by Ankara’s unfounded support for Azerbaijan in the Karabakh issue, as well as by Turkey’s acute reaction to the process of international recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

Tthe President of the Chamber of Commerce of the Van province Zaire Kandasoglu expressed his hope that the participation of the Turkish side in the conference is the first step in strengthening the regional business ties between the countries.

“I believe that this exhibition will be a progress in the development of the tourism sector, and express my thanks to all the organizers who invited us to the exhibition,” said Kandasoglu.

Forty representatives of 13 Turkish companies from the Van province took part in the exhibition.

Translated from Russian by YerevanReport.com