TURKEY – ARMENIA RELATIONS WORKSHOP
NASUHI GUNGOR
Turkish Press
May 28 2009
STAR – We aren’t used to follow the important steps taken in Turkey,
but leave them to their destinies easily. Important developments
occurred recently in Turkish-Armenian relations. The public followed
the course of incidents from its tabloid side due to the stance of
media in relevant countries to a certain extent. The discussions
which emerged in Turkey and Armenia, as well as Azerbaijan, were
like this. But there is a process which has already started and
the healthy progress of this process is vitally important for our
geography. Turkey is facing one more great difficulty, along with
all these negative sides.
We attended a meeting in Istanbul yesterday which contributed to
this process. The Turkey-Armenia Relations Workshop, organized by
the Foundation for Political, Economy and Social Research (SETA)
on May 26-27, hosted a great many figures from the two sides on the
discussion table. Of course, there are serious disagreements between
the parties. What’s more, Turkish and Armenian participants reflected
different opinions in their own countries. The usual theses were
sometimes reiterated in the meeting. But the details aren’t important
here. This meeting greatly contributed to the process of normalization,
because the discussions which are made on such issues only by the state
or through diplomatic possibilities aren’t enough. The bases which are
established by the civilian society ensure that theses are put forth
more boldly and the parties talk to each other without official covers.
We saw it once more in the meeting that Turkey’s responsibilities in
this field are considerably heavy. Actually, a definition which became
prominent in our small talks there reflects this fact. Turkey has to
manage ‘parallel processes’ correctly. Of course, relating the opening
of Armenian border to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue makes the process
more difficult. But the difficulties suffered by Ankara have started
just at this point, because Turkey can’t ignore the disadvantages to
be caused by excluding Azerbaijan from this process. What’s more, in
such a case, Armenia might become the part of a more important problem,
which would make no contribution to efforts for peace in the region.
Of course, nobody should expect a rapid progress to occur in a problem
which hasn’t been discussed thoroughly and which remained on the
curtain of mist in history. Furthermore, it’s not easy to progress in
a field in which intellectuals from both parties have a great many
prejudices and wrong information about the issue. This initiative,
made by SETA, is important in a few respects. Firstly, discussing
the issue on the basis of civilian society provides everybody with
the opportunity of expressing themselves comfortably. Such bases
should be quickly increased. Secondly, the people who were brought
together should have necessary qualifications to discuss the issue in
a versatile way. The participation of the academic world, as well as
the media, was planned in a way to feed this situation. Of course,
this work will encourage and pave the way for similar initiatives
in the future. The contributions made for the continuation of this
process are important as well. Each effort exerted for sustaining
the normalization process is valuable.