ARMENIA/TURKEY: STILL DIVIDED ON GENOCIDE, BUT SIGNS OF WARMING
By Luke Allnutt
Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, Czech Republic –
April 23 2007
PRAGUE, April 23, 2007 (RFE/RL) — Armenians around the world
are commemorating the 92nd anniversary of the mass killings and
deportations of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.
Armenians refer to this chapter in their history as genocide —
a term the Turks firmly reject.
It’s an issue that continues to blight relations between Armenia
and Turkey. The two countries do not have diplomatic relations and
the 268-kilometer border between the two countries has been closed
since 1993.
Armenians say that Turks killed up to 1.5 millions Armenians in 1915-18
as the Ottoman Empire was beginning to crumble. Turks say the killings
were part of the wider conflict of World War I, and that only 300,000
Armenians died.
Global Recognition
Today, the controversy has gone global, with a number of countries
debating whether the killings can be called genocide — the deliberate
and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.
Many countries, including Russia, and Canada, have passed legislation
recognizing the killings as genocide. In France, the courts can
impose a one-year prison term and a fine of about $64,000 for anyone
found guilty of denying the genocide — the same penalty for denying
the Holocaust.
‘I think we should live in the present, since there are more important
issues, real issues, today.’In the United States, the Congress —
dominated by the opposition Democrats — has endorsed a bill to
officially recognize the Armenian killings as genocide. The bill
has met with stiff opposition from supporters of the presidential
administration, which is eager to maintain smooth ties with its NATO
ally Turkey.
But even as the genocide debate has occupied international politics,
some Armenians believe it’s time for their country to move on.
Davit Gevorgyan, a 21-year-old computer programmer from Yerevan, says
he thinks that pushing the issue of genocide is no longer appropriate.
"We should remember everything that’s happened, but we don’t need
to use that to create a certain political course. I think we should
live in the present time, since there are more important issues,
real issues, today," Gevorgyan says.
"It would be better to solve these than to devote all our energy and
efforts to those old issues. Many politicians are using the Armenian
genocide to create their political platform in Armenia and it serves
as a trump card, a way to manipulate people. They simply abuse it."
Politically Charged
But politicians in both countries aren’t likely to shift toward a
more moderate stance on the genocide issue in the months ahead.
Armenia holds parliamentary elections in May; Turkey will have
presidential and general elections this year.
A dramatic policy switch on such an emotional issue could prove
a massive political liability in a season when officials will be
fighting to hold onto votes.
Soner Cagaptay, who heads the Turkish research program of the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington, D.C., says
that "the public is as staunch, in some ways, on this issue and in
their entrenched commitments, as the politicians are."
An Armenian woman mourns the death of a boy during the deportation
(epa) Officially, Turkey has said that to establish diplomatic
relations it would require Armenia to drop its policy on seeking
recognition of the genocide internationally.
However, some Turkish politicians have said that Turkey should not
attach such preconditions to the opening of the border.
That is mirrored by recent Armenian comments. Speaking at the OSCE in
Vienna recently, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said that
in order to normalize relations with Turkey, the Armenian side has
no preconditions and expects that Turkey should not have any either.
What complicates the issue is the powerful and wealthy Armenian
diaspora. The diaspora has huge lobbying power in the West,
particularly in the United States.
Cagaptay says that Armenia and the Armenian diaspora do not always
have the same position.
"Armenia seems to be more pro-dialogue with Turkey — unconditional
dialogue, that is. Whereas the Armenian diaspora will not start
a dialogue or a normalization of the relations unless Turkey
unconditionally recognizes there is something called the Armenian
genocide," Cagaptay says.
Another complication in relations between the two countries is
Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic Armenian enclave that Azerbaijan,
Turkey’s traditional ally, and Armenia fought over in the beginning
of the 1990s.
Business Links
Despite the impasse, however, there are significant business links
between the two countries.
The border, while officially closed, is quite porous in places.
Traders also travel from Armenia via Georgia to sell their goods in
Turkey. Some Armenians labor as guest workers in eastern Turkey and
there are regular flights between Yerevan and Istanbul.
Many in the business community in Armenia and Turkey have lobbied
for the border to be opened. They say it would have a huge effect in
revitalizing poor regions on both sides of the border.
Noyan Soyak from the Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council
says trade has grown significantly, from $35 million in 1997 to well
above $150 million now.
"The free flow of people, the free flow of commodities, would
definitely have a great impact on the development of the region,
of the economical development of the region," Soyak says.
In the troubled relationships between Armenia and Turkey, there have
occasionally been brief periods of hope for reconciliation.
Turkey’s earthquake in 1999 was one of them, when Armenians sent
truckloads of aid. The murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant
Dink in January 2007, when tens of thousands of Turks turned out for
his funeral, was another.
Turkey also recently completed a $1.5 million restoration of an ancient
Armenian church located on an island on historic Lake Van in Turkey’s
eastern Anatolia region.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called the
reconstruction a "positive" message. But a better one, suggested
Armenian Foreign Minister Oskanian, would be to open the border.
(RFE/RL’s Armenian and Azerbaijani services contributed to this
report.)