Turkey must not isolate Armenia: Pierre Lellouche

Turkey must not isolate Armenia from the outsite world, French Minister for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche said in an interview with Euronews.

"I have been asking them to open the land frontier for a long time. You know that the air frontier is open. And the Turks have everything to gain by opening the border with Armenia, by not cutting this country off. So I hope that Turkey will do this, but of course it's difficult, when many refugees remain in Azerbaijan, and they have religious and ethnic affinities with them."

"And we encourage the press, and local politicians - on one hand the Turkish side and on the other the Armenian side. We very much supported President Gul's football diplomacy with Armenia. We saw, there was an agreement. Then, sadly, the agreement was not ratified. We very much want these countries to reach a solution through negotiation. It's the same for Azerbaijan, which has a real economic potential. They must admit there are refugees, and find solutions," said he.

Asked whether France, Russia and the US could resolve the Nagornoa Karabakh issue which has been stalled for years, Lellouche said: "Well it's mainly stalled by internal politics."