Only two percent voted for Turkey
"Following the 2008 Presidential election in Armenia when Serzh Sargsyan announced his foreign policy course, Turkish businesspeople deployed "apostles" in Armenia to study the Armenian market and our potential of imports and exports," says Aharon Adibekian, head of Sociometer pollster center.
The latter says eastern Turkey is weakly developed and thrives thanks to economic ties with Armenia.
The sociologist is going to conduct a survey on Armenian-Turkish relations among experts.
"Experts assess the situation better. The survey will be conducted among political figures, businesspeople, students, salespeople and in circles interested in the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations."
Sociometer has been conducting public opinion surveys on Armenian-Turkish relations since 1991.
During the presidential election they asked people which countries they wished Armenia bettered ties with. The findings unveiled that Russia was the first followed by Europe, Iran, Georgia and CIS countries.
"Only two percent voted for Turkey. The figure is too low taking into consideration the fruitful commodity circulation between the two countries which brings an income of 6-7 percent to Armenia," says Mr. Adibekian.
"People fear that after the frontier reopening Turks will take our resources, buy Armenian lands, copper and molybdenum since other countries cannot afford our copper and molybdenum because of transport costs. Besides, let's not forget that Armenians will never forget the Genocide issue. About 75 percent of Armenian population have immigrated from Western Armenian and are survivals of the great massacre. They cannot raze from their memories the slaughter. My ancestors also migrated to Armenia from Shushi," says the sociologist.
Mr. Adibekian noted that part of Armenian businessmen is against the frontier opening as they import goods from Russia and Ukraine and fear losing their markets.
