US Ambassador to Armenia Marie Jovanovich

YEREVAN (Novosti-Armenia), June 3—”We call on Armenia and Turkey to keep the door open for the further normalization of the relations,” said the US Ambassador to Armenia Marie Jovanovich.

“The US supports the initiative of Armenia to normalize the relations with Turkey and the opening of the border. According to the recent statement of President Sarkisian, Armenia doesn’t stop the process, but suspends it until some positive steps [are taken] by Turkey,” said Jovanovic on Wednesday, during her speech on the topic of “The prospects of cooperation between the US and Armenia” at the American University of Armenia.

According to Jovanovic, the US supports the initiative of the Armenian President not to stop the process of normalization of relations and to continue to work towards establishing peace, stability and security in the region.

The Ambassador stressed that the normalization process is extremely important and will benefit both Turkey and Armenia, and the South Caucasus region, too.

The diplomat also recalled that two years ago nobody could even think about the possibility of normalizing the relations between the two neighbors.

Jovanovich also said that she hoped that during the dialogue process all obstacles and prohibitions in the Armenian-Turkish relations will be cleared.

She also reminded that opening the Armenian-Turkish border will be quite profitable for Armenia, since it will lead to an economical growth of 3 percent annually and will also give an access to the Turkish and the European markets. The opening of the border will also lead to increased energy security, she thinks.

Jovanovic added that the existence of closed borders in the 21st century is unacceptable.

“The US supports the process of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations without any preconditions,” she said.

Translated from Russian by Yerevan Report