ARMENIA AND TURKEY: WALKING UP THE STAIRWAY TO NORMALIZATION
Alice Radzyner

Euros Du Village
urkey-Walking-up-the,3278
Nov 11 2009
EU

Turkey and Armenia have ‘strange relations and a difficult history’
says Dr. Armine Ishkanian, a professor at the London School of
Economics. On the 10th of October 2009, Turkey and Armenia signed
protocols in Zurich re-establishing diplomatic ties for the first
time in almost 100 years. Now, they can walk up the stairway to
‘normalization’, although they both carry a heavy load of collective
memory born out of traumatic common history. The protocols do not only
hold importance for the two neighbouring countries. International
and European authorities seem to rush the countries on the way to
normalization – a push that assures benefits to all.

A steep stairway to normalization Unlike taking conventional measures
to re-establish diplomatic ties, such as trading, Turkey and Armenia
took their first step onto the stairway to normalization through
‘football diplomacy’.

It all started with a football qualifying match between Turkey and
Armenia for the 2010 World Cup, in September last year. While no
diplomatic links existed between the two states, the Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan invited his Turkish counter-part, Abdullah Gul, to watch
the match in Yerevan. While small groups of nationalist fans booed the
Turkish national anthem or brought anti-Turkish placards to the game,
no violent protests were reported. When Mr. Gul invited Mr. Sargsyan
to the Turkey-Armenia match on 14th October 2009 in Bursa, the latter
claimed he would accept only if agreements would be reached on opening
their common border, closed since 1993. This was the turning point.

The ‘football diplomacy’ was successful. Four days before the match,
Turkey and Armenia signed protocols in Zurich, creating joint
commissions on political and trade relations. Professor Armine
Ishkanian argues this to be the neoliberal approach of trading
‘cheese and tea’, possibly leading to peaceful relations.

For many, cooperating on politics and trade inspired hope. Others
reacted with heated protests. Indeed, the stairway to Armenian-Turkish
normalization is long and steep. The Armenian president in fact agreed
to Turkey’s proposition of establishing a historical commission. Its
purpose is to examine the clashing perceptions of traumatic events
which still shape Armenians’ collective memory and affect the relation
between both states : the massacre of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians
in what is today eastern Turkey, in 1915. While most international
historians agree that the systematic killings of the Armenian
population qualify as genocide, Turkey has never accepted the term as
an appropriate designation of the events. For the Turkish government,
Armenians were merely victims of World War I amongst many others. This
discord portrays a heavy load on Turkish-Armenian relations impeding
their walk up to normalization.

To many Armenians the idea of creating a Turkish-Armenian historical
commission means doubting the victims’ memories and invokes their
government’s ‘betrayal’. Protests not only broke out on the streets of
Yerevan, but also throughout the large Armenian diaspora in Lebanon,
France and the USA. As revealed in an interview with an international
lawyer who prefers to remain anonymous, "the moral, political, legal
‘toxicity’ [of the 1915 events] cannot be denied and will have to be
duly ‘de-poisoned’, for which purpose dogmatically legalistic, formal
argumentations will be decisively unsuited. To scrap facts under the
carpet will not work and will generate more additional ‘toxicity’".

The role of civil society in the reconciliation process between
the two countries is indeed essential. When in 2007, Hrant Dink,
an editor and journalist of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper
Agos, was murdered in Turkey for his critical views, Turkish citizens
showed solidarity. On the streets of Istanbul, people shouted :
‘We are all Armenians, We are all Hrant Dink’.

Still, nationalist reactions remain frequent in both camps, and
efforts from civil society remain too weak to eradicate the tensions.

For the political breakthrough to happen, the political will of both
governments was indispensable. This breakthrough occurred on the
10th of October. Though, why only now ? Was the underlying reason for
intensifying the talks a sudden will for friendship, or international
pressure ?

International interests : Pushing for faster normalization On the
10th of October Armenian and Turkish officials were not the only ones
attending the meetings in Zurich. The signing was in fact assisted by
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov, and the EU Foreign and Security Policy representative
Javier Solana.

All participants seem to have strong interests in the opening of
Turkey’s and Armenia’s common border. Turkey had closed the border
in 1993 in solidarity with Azerbaijan after Armenian forces occupied
the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh – a territory with a predominantly
ethnic Armenian population. Approximately 25,000 casualties and
nearly 1 million refugees were the outcomes of this war. International
interests could have been the motives for rushing Armenia and Turkey
up the stairway to normalization.

For the EU and the US, the open border could lead to reducing their
dependence on Russian energy, as oil and gas pipelines could be
installed in the Caucasus, linking Central Asia directly to Europe.

The Protocols certainly also have consequences for Turkey’s EU
accession. Turkey showed its will for stable and peaceful relations
with its neighbours, hence diplomatic strength. Also, Turkey would
potentially strengthen its position as a ‘key security provider’,
according to Dr. Igor Torbakov, Senior Researcher at the Finish
Institute for International Affairs. In a geo-political sense, Turkey
would be at least a buffer and at best a key actor between the EU and
the Caucasus. If Turkey ultimately became an EU member-state, its good
relations with the Caucasus may also ameliorate relations between
Russia and the EU. "Good, stable, expanding neighbourly relations
with Armenia can be, in this respect, a valuable contribution, even
a constitutive element", argues the consulted international lawyer.

More importantly, normalization could shorten Turkey’s path to EU
accession given the significance of the Armenian diaspora. There
are 10 million Armenians world wide, of which less than a third has
the Armenian nationality or lives in Armenia. Positive developments
in diplomatic neighbourly relations between Turkey and Armenia will
undoubtedly strengthen Europeans’ support of Turkey’s accession. Once
the disputes over the 1915 massacres are appropriately resolved,
the diaspora too will have to finally assess Turkey’s policies and
its EU accession in a more objective, unemotional, manner.

Mind your step The signing of the protocols on the 10th of October
could be an enormous step towards normalization and good neighbourly
relations.

Only once the broken first step of the stairway – the 1915 issue
– is fixed, civil society will be able to move on alongside the
governments. Turkey may then be able to walk up the still steep,
yet secure stairway towards EU-membership.