Turkey - normalising with the neighbours

One, little mentioned, feature of the EU accession talks with Turkey is that relations with it's neighbours would have to be 'normalised'. However, Turkey has a closed border with Armenia...which isn't all that normal. This dates from 1993 and Armenia's conflict with Azerbaijan and was meant to encourage Armenian withdrawal from captured territory. Now it's an obstacle that has to be discretely removed (if public opinion will stomach it). Since Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have all been recognized by the EU as part of the EU neighbourhood policy (for relations with states that may join one day) some think they may all view Turkey in a less threatening light and these unresolved issues may finally settle the regions borders. more from EurasiaNet...