The topic of opening the Armenian-Turkish border is in the focus of public discussions again. There have been a number of publications concerning the possibility of opening the borders and the expected results in international media. The decision to keep the borders close on part of Turkey did not make its expectations come true. Armenia has solved the problems even with more efforts since 1990. Armenia has survived and met both strategic and economic challenges. Even more, in conditions of closed borders certain relations and processes have been formed between the two countries. The portion of Turkey in the foreign trade circulation of Armenia, which annual capacity exceeds 5,5 billion, is very small. It is not significant. In 2004-07 Turkey was in 21-26 places among the partner countries of Armenia. In 2004 Armenia exported products worth of 2 million to Turkey, and in 2005 this export capacity amounted to 2,5 million. In 2007 this export capacity exceeded 3 million. The trade circulation with Turkey, as well as with other countries, is negative now, i.e. more products were imported than exported. In 2004 Armenia imported products amounting to 45 million. In 2005 the import amounted to 67 million, and in 2006 – 95,5 million. In 2007 this amount significantly grew up to 131 million. (The official statistics for 2008 has not been published yet). This information does not reflect the real amount of trade between the two countries because of the fact that there are no official diplomatic relations between the two countries. A part of Turkish products are imported to Armenia from other countries, mainly from Georgia. This means that the official information does not show the real picture. Even in such conditions the official statistics reports that in 2004-07 years Armenia’s export grew by 50 per cent, and the import grew by three times. In fact Turkey’s portion among the importer countries is big (3,3-4%). Turkey is in the 9th place among the 12 biggest importers of products to Armenia. The statistics reports that in the recent period the sorts of products of both import and export have become stabile. Armenia mainly exports leather to this country, and imports construction materials, knitted wear, ceramics, etc. The capacity of imported food has been significantly cut down since the 90s. In the mentioned period Armenia imported low quality and cheap food from Turkey. In parallel with the economic growth such food products were replaced with high quality products from CIS countries and Europe. Most part of electronic facilities in Armenian shops are made by the Turkish branch companies of famous European brands. In 2007 a new sector of trade circulation appeared, which concerns energetic facilities. At present the amount of trade in this sector is small and amounts to several hundred thousand dollars but experts say that as a result of opening the borders this sector has a great potential to grow. Our domestic market and the limited market of Georgia are very small for the huge energetic system of Armenia. There is another thesis too, according to which after opening the border Armenia will have the opportunity to export the labor of constructors, energetic specialists to the eastern parts of Turkey. This part of Turkey is less developed compared to the central and western parts of Turkey. Accordingly, these parts of Turkey are not attractive for the people from the other parts where the main potential of labor is concentrated. Instead of that the Armenian workers and specialists who don’t have jobs in Armenia can go there and find jobs. This experience was success in some remote regions close to the border. However the version of opening the border has not ever been discussed from the point of view of economic benefits. It has always been out of the political interests and politics in general. Now it is not about the interests of the mentioned two countries, but the interests of the super-states which have certain expectations in the region.
