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Armenia's ex-president Robert Kocharyan believes the opening of the border with Turkey at present poses risks to the Armenian agricultural sector, and specifically for farmers of Ararat valley. The former president's remarks came at a meeting with his supporters on April 26. 

"We do not insist that having a closed border is good. It would not be normal if we advocated for the borders to remain closed. However, there is an issue we should not leave unaddressed. The opening of the border with Turkey today would greatly harm the agricultural sector, since it will not complement but compete with the Turkish market. Turkey's agricultural sector is obviously in a better state in terms of volumes and Turkey's government offers incomparably larger amounts of subsidies to the sector," Kocharyan said, adding no state subsidies are offered to the agricultural sector in Armenian, while the government decision to dissolve the ministry of agriculture in 2018 brought the sector to a dire condition.   

"This means that if the border is opened at present, the farmers of Ararat valley will suffer greatly. Their products will not be competitive in terms of the price. Before opening the border, we would need to spend several years to increase the agricultural sector in Armenian and level up the volumes of the subsidies to that of the Turkish sector. The border opening will pose a great risks for the farmers," added the ex-president.