Most Armenians opposed to opening border with Turkey - poll

YEREVAN. Feb 11 (Interfax) - About 55% of Armenians are opposed to opening the border with Turkey, the Armenian office of the Gallup International Association has found after polling 800 respondents.

"As many as 54.6% of the respondents have spoken against opening the border between Armenia and Turkey," Aram Navasardyan, head of the office, said at a press conference on Friday.

Only 6.9% of the respondents supported the idea of opening the border, he said.

Armenia and Turkey earlier started negotiations on opening the border and establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Armenia's and Turkey's special representatives for normalizing bilateral relations met for the first time in Moscow on January 14. The next such meeting should take place in Vienna on February 24.

Armenia and Turkey have no diplomatic relations, and the border between the two countries has been closed at Ankara's initiative since 1993 because of the Karabakh conflict.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said earlier that the Armenian government's goal is to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan and establish diplomatic relations with Turkey.