Political and economic consequences of opening the Armenian-Turkish border: implications for Armenia and Turkey

Abstract

The given study aims to explore the political and economic consequences of opening the border between Armenia and Turkey. The essay proposes the argument that for Armenia the opening of the border implies economic benefits, whereas for Turkey it gives a framework to receive political dividends. For analysis of the study scholarly articles, statistical data, various databases, analytical documents, reports, and other studies are used. The essay demonstrates that the closed border strongly hampers Armenia’s economic development. Furthermore, Turkey’s eastern regions also can have economic benefits with open border. However, the analysis shows that Turkey will mainly gain in political terms by improving its international image and becoming a neutral actor in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.