Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Nov 22 2008
`Armenian political forces welcome Turkey-Armenia dialogue’
Turkish and Armenian experts attended to two-day workshop organized by
the Armenian Caucasus Institute and the Turkish Economic and Social
Studies Foundation in Yerevan.
All political forces in Armenia, including the elite, are ready for
the improvement of relations between Armenia and Turkey, said an
Armenian expert as a seminar on Turkish-Armenian dialogue got under
way.
"Issues related to the borders, genocide and Nagorno-Karabakh are not
real obstacles to opening the border between Armenia and Turkey. We
can sign an agreement without making any references to Ottoman Turkey
or Bolshevik Russia. The Armenian elite do not oppose the process,"
said Alexander Iskandaryan, who is the director of the Caucasus
Institute, where a workshop titled "Turkey-Armenia Dialogue Series:
Breaking the Vicious Cycle" started yesterday with the cooperation of
the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV).
Referring to the ultranationalist opposition in Turkey to
Turkish-Armenian dialogue, Iskandaryan said the situation in Turkey is
more complicated than in Armenia. "But the issue now is part of
Turkish internal discussion. There are no third parties involved like
Washington or Brussels but a direct dialogue between Ankara and
Yerevan. I’ve traveled to Ä°stanbul and Ankara so many
times. This would be impossible seven years ago," he stated.
In reference to Turkey’s decision to close its border and sever its
ties with Armenia in 1993 to protest Armenia’s occupation of
Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, he said the Nagorno-Karabakh problem
is not a problem between Yerevan and Ankara.
Aybars Görgülü from TESEV highlighted the fact
that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been the biggest challenge
facing Turkish-Armenian relations because Turkey has made it a
precondition for the normalization of relations.
He also added that the joint declaration signed recently by Armenian
President Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijani President Ä°lham Aliyev
in Moscow in the presence of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was an
important step to demonstrate their desire for a peaceful resolution
to the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
"The catch here is the change in Russia’s position regarding this
intricate conflict. Russia’s strategy to freeze the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict has apparently changed after the conflict with Georgia,"
GörgülÃ& #xBC; said.
Iskandaryan said the issue of genocide exists in Turkish and Armenian
mentalities, but that it should not exist in diplomatic relations. He
noted the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s stance on the issue that
resolutions passed in other countries’ parliaments supporting Armenian
claims of genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during World War
I will not help dialogue between the two countries.
"The Armenian diaspora protects its own interests. This is related to
their national identity. It’s impossible to stop that in
Yerevan. Secondly, they are citizens of other countries, French,
American, etc. We are talking about relations between Ankara and
Yerevan," he added.
Meanwhile, the speakers reminded the audience at the beginning of the
seminar that TESEV Director Mensur Akgün and former Ambassador
Yalım Eralp, who were supposed to take part at the workshop,
had to stay in Turkey because they learned at the airport in
Ä°stanbul that Armenian authorities would not allow people who
hold the "green passports" issued to public servants to enter Armenia
without a prior visa application.
Akgün and Eralp told Today’s Zaman on Wednesday that they had
been to Armenia before with same passports. TESEV officials weighed
the situation and decided that the rest of the delegation, who carry
ordinary passports, should go to Yerevan for the conference, which was
organized months ago as a contribution to the civil society dialogue
between the two countries.
Today’s Zaman learned from the Armenian Foreign Ministry in Yerevan
that there was a change in the law one year ago about the rules
regarding all foreigners visiting Armenia. According to the new law,
people carrying ordinary passports can be issued visas at the
airport. But citizens of any other country carrying special passports
should obtain visas from the Foreign Ministry prior to their visit.
22 November 2008, Saturday
YONCA POYRAZ DOÄ?AN YEREVAN