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Signature collecting campaign against opening of Turkish-Armenian borders finished

Politics Materials 21 April 2009 17:56 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, April 21 / Trend , J.Babayeva/

A signature collecting campaign against possible opening of the Turkish-Armenian borders finished on April 21.

"Number of people joining the campaign reached over 22,000 people. A book comprising 600 pages together with the collected signatures will be submitted to the Presidential Administration, Cabinet of Ministers, Turkish Parliament and Ministry of Education," organizer of the campaign and member of the World Azerbaijanis Congress (WAC) Board Asif Gurbanov told Trend in a telephone conversation from Ankara.

The signature collecting campaign "Against opening of Turkish-Armenian borders" started at Web site www.turkiye-ermenistan-kapilar-acilmasin.org on April 7.

Different representatives of the Turkish society think the borders with Armenia will open. But the Turkish official governmental bodies stated that the borders will not open until the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is solved.

Armenian-Turkish ties have been severed since 1993 due to Armenia's claims of an alleged genocide, and the country's occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul visited Yerevan on Sept. 6, 2008 upon the invitation of his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisyan to watch an Armenia-Turkey football match.

Efforts have been made to normalize ties between the two countries ever since.

Gurbanov said the campaign is not held against Turkey. "The campaign aimed to prevent opening borders and prove how it will damage Turkey and Azerbaijan," Gurbanov said.

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