A Promising Armenian Questionnaire
by Abdulhamit Bilici
Today’s Zaman
Jan. 27, 2007

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I never expected to see hope of a thaw in Turkish-Armenian relations
occur in a platform controlled by diaspora Armenians.

You may call it bias or lack of trust, but I believe this feeling is
shared by many Turks as a result of the diaspora’s uninterrupted
efforts to convict Turkey of a shameful crime all over the world; from
Paris to Buenos Aires, from Washington to Strausbourg. Even if there
exists hope that Turkey will one day have good relations with Armenia,
most Turks don’t expect the same with the diaspora.

This sign of hope emerged when I saw the results of a questionnaire
posted by armeniadiaspora.com. It is a credible diaspora website, at
least in the eyes of Armenians, because the Armenian Foreign Ministry
has a link to that site on its homepage. It is a platform where the
Armenian diaspora exchanges opinions gets community news, lobbies for
their causes, etc.

The questionnaire’s aim was to understand the impact of Hrant Dink’s
slaying on Turkish-Armenian relations.

One question asks, "Do you think that slaying of Hrant Dink a) makes
dialogue between Armenia and Turkey impossible, b) is another step
toward denial of an Armenian genocide or c) makes dialogue between
Armenia and Turkey easier, especially considering the reaction to the
murder in both countries."

When I was writing this piece, 61 percent of the participants were
saying that Dink’s slaying will help Turkish-Armenian relations.

It was a good decision for the Turkish government to turn tragedy into
opportunity by inviting leading figures from Armenia and the Armenian
diaspora to the ceremony. The reactions of those who witnessed Dink’s
funeral were also in line with that statistic.

For instance, Samson Ozararat, who is part of the Armenian diaspora in
France and an adviser to the Armenian foreign minister, attended the
funeral. He was hopeful as he expressed his feelings about the event:
"What I saw in the funeral was encouraging. The funeral did most of
what Hrant was trying to do in his life. All the colors of Anatolia
met in the funeral."

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosyan also attended to the
funeral and made a statement declaring their readiness "to establish
diplomatic relations with Turkey with no preconditions."

Indeed, in the past Turks have seen positive results coming from
disasters in their foreign policy. One of the most recent and sounding
examples of that was the terrible 1999 earthquake, which rescued
Turkish-Greek relations. Both sides of the Aegean tried to help each
other, creating positive feelings in both capitals. This happened
despite the fact that terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan was caught in the Greek embassy in Kenya
in the same year.

Similarly, we saw an earthquake play an important role in relations
between India and Pakistan.

However, such tragedies have the potential only to change people’s
minds, an essential but not sufficient factor in making big leaps
toward radical decisions. If this positive environment is not
supported by politicians and foreign ministries, it will be hard to
expect an end in the deadlock between Armenia and Turkey.

Because of this, Ankara is in a difficult position to convince its
Azeri brother that good relations between Turkey and Armenia can
benefit both countries. On the Turkish side, it may get the genocide
tool out of the hands of Western capitals. On the Azeri side, Turkey
may have bigger leverage over Yerevan to end its occupation of
Nagorno-Karabakh, a part of Azerbaijan. But this is not an easy task
for any Turkish politician, irrespective of their ideology, especially
when Armenia and the Armenian diaspora continue encouraging Western
parliaments to pass laws condemning Turkey and occupy 20 percent of
Azerbaijan.

Under these circumstances, let’s hope that at least civil society, the
media and intellectuals on both sides can interact more and learn each
other’s true thoughts.

_a.bilici@todayszaman.com_ (mailto:a.bilici@todayszaman.com)

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress