WORKSHOP TACKLES ROAD MAP IN ARMENIAN ISSUE
Hurriyet
May 27 2009
Turkey
ISTANBUL – The Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research
gathers opinion makers from Turkey and Armenia in a two-day workshop
in Istanbul. Participants discuss the road ahead on bilateral relations
as well as the resolution stalemate over the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
With the prime minister’s statement that a solution to Nagorno-Karabakh
must be found before opening the border with Armenia casting doubt
on reconciliation, nongovernmental organizations have rolled up their
sleeves to keep up momentum for reconciliation.
The Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research was
one such think tank, as it initiated a two-day workshop between
opinion makers from Turkey and Armenia in Istanbul, which started
yesterday. Changes in international relations are not happening with
traditional diplomacy, but different actors, such as businessmen and
opinion makers, are also contributing to international developments,
said one of the participants from Turkey. In this respect, participants
discussed the road ahead both in bilateral relations and on the future
of the Caucasus.
Even more complicated
At the end of the first day of discussions the two sides seemed to
agree that progress on the reconciliation process between Armenia
and Turkey looked even more difficult than two months ago, especially
after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Azerbaijan.
Turkey and Armenia made a historic joint statement in April
announcing to the world that they agreed on a road map to normalize
relations. Following the reaction of Azerbaijan, which is in dispute
with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Erdogan said resolution
to the conflict was linked to the normalization, which was perceived
as a setback to the reconciliation talks between Yerevan and Baku.
The Armenian participants repeated their frustration of sharing the
last closed border in Europe, as well as what they describe as Turkish
policy being taken hostage by Azerbaijan. The Turkish participants on
the other hand took pains to soften Prime Minister Erdogan’s statement,
avoiding the use of the term "precondition."
One participant from Turkey said that Turkey’s initiatives toward
Armenia were not motivated by increasing resolutions recognizing
Armenians’ claims of genocide, but by the policy of the ruling
Justice and Development Party, or AKP, based on the motto "Zero
problems with neighbors." "Turkey wants to correct an anomaly and
reintegrate its neighborhood," he said. Recalling the Russia-Georgia
war of last summer, the same participant said the status quo in the
Caucasus was not sustainable, adding that the normalization process
between Turkey and Armenia and the resolution to the frozen conflict
of Nagorno-Karabakh should be mutually reinforcing each other.
While participants from Armenia seemed unanimous on the government’s
position that there should be no precondition to normalization of
relations with the exception of one participant, who said Turkey should
recognize Armenians claims of genocide before there was normalization,
the participants from the Turkish side differed on their views on the
linkage between normalization and the resolution to Nagorno-Karabakh
problem. Some of the Turkish participants agreed with their Armenian
counterparts that if the normalization process were taken hostage by
the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, there would not be any progress on the
bilateral relations.