Strangers, who bravely pass round the thick log and try to reach the gates heralding the borderline, are looked at with suspicion in Margara village.

The Armenian flag can be seen in the border posts; on the other side of the closed gates is the famous bridge of Margara, which runs over the River Arax, ending at the gates this time staunchly announcing the border of Turkey. The Turkish red flag with a crescent is seen from a distance.

“Do not go near them, as soon as the border-keepers see you, they will immediately approach you. Shoot fast and go back,” says deputy village head of Margara Gharib Tadevosyan

Margara village (Armavir province – some 40 kilometers southwest of Yerevan) has 1,400 residents, the ancestors of which came here mainly after the Armenian Genocide in 1915, migrating from Alashkert, Igdir, Surmalu and Mush. The peasants are sure that if the border opens the cost of land will rise.

Tadevosyan says that soon after the discussions over opening the Armenian-Turkish border flare up, journalists swarm Margara like bees.

“People are sure that the opening of the border will settle many social problems. But I am against the opening of the border without preconditions. It is not excluded that it would be good at the beginning, but I do not want us make a step and then regret it in some 25 years,” he says, and pointing at the poplars in the distance, adds, “They are already on the Turkish side.”

“Many will sell (their lands), but I won’t do that. This is my land and my water, and even if they pay me a million, I will not give them. I know one thing; authorities open this border for their own interests. Why does Germany recognized the Holocaust, and they (Turks) do not want to recognize our Genocide,” says Armenak Sargsyan, who is a descendent of Mush.

Residents of the village remember how in 1980, before the Olympic Games, the Soviet Union built a customs-house near Margara’s bridge, which never functioned since then.

Tadevosyan says that the customs house was there to accommodate Turkish and other foreign sportsmen.

When in 1991 Turkey recognized Armenia’s independence, Mehmet Ali Birand, editor-in-chief of CNN Turk and famous Turkish political analyst, came to Armenia crossing Margara’s bridge. He took an interview with first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan.

In autumn 1992, when the blockade of Armenia started, Turkish wheat was brought to Armenia via Kars-Gyumri railway in return for the same amount of bread from the European Union. This agreement was achieved by Ter-Petrosyan and then Prime Minister Khostrov Harutyunyan.

Again in 1992 Syrian wheat came to Armenia crossing the same Margara Bridge. President of Syria, the late Hafez al-Assad (father of current President of Syria Bashar al-Assad) gave 6,000 tons of wheat to Armenia as a sign of support.

In April 1993, when Armenian troops entered Kelbaijar on the Nagorno Karabkh frontier, according to the special decision of the Turkish Government, the border was closed once and for all.

Then, in September 2008, President of Turkey Abdullah Gül, arrived in Armenia by airplane to watch the World Cup Qualifying Armenia-Turkey football match at the invitation of President Serzh Sargsyan.

Later, at the end of August of this year, before the now-infamous rapprochement protocols were announced, Sargsyan said, “I will leave for Turkey only in the instance of achieving an open border, or if we are on the threshold of lifting the blockade against Armenia.” The President’s announcement was followed by the protocols, and later the six-week discussions in both countries.

On the border at Margara, those discussions were most heated.

“Yes, opening of the border is good, many things will develop, but, it’s all the same, Turks will be Turks. Just remember how Officer Gurgen Margaryan was killed. And moreover, the murderer became a national hero in his country (referring to the 2004 murder of an Armenian officer by his Azeri counterpart in Hungary). Do you think that this nation is able to change?” says Paret Hakobyan from Margara.

Ofelya Tadevosyan’s garden is ended by border barbed wire. She says that soon after the rumors over the opening of the border were spread, some foreigners in big cars came to the village and asked how much houses and lands cost there.

“They say that when the border is open, the lands on the road will be more expensive. The prices are already raised: if before the houses on the road cost $10,000, then now the price is $50,000.”

The length of the Armenian-Turkish border is 328 km. In 1992 a treaty was signed between Armenia and Russia on mutual defense of the Armenian-Turkish border. Along the River Arax Armenian villages Margara, Arax, Arazap, Janfida, Pshatavan, etc., are arranged as border-guards.

“The bordering villages carry great responsibility on their shoulders. Anyway, the first threat is directed to them, and they are the ones that protect the entrance to the country. And the residents of those villages live here quite not by an accident: these people hoped that they would go back soon,” Tadevosyan says.