"We have no intention of opening the gate to Armenia unless the Armenian occupation is lifted," he told Turkey's Anatolian news agency in Frankfurt.
Soysal said Ankara would disregard a recommendation by an organ of the Council of Europe that Turks open the gate in the eastern border province of Kars, a vital link to the West for Yerevan.
"As a matter of fact, it would serve our interests to open this gate because Armenians then would come to Kars to shop. But Armenia must be made to pull back from lands it has occupied," Soysal said.
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