ARMENIAN IRREDENTISM: THE REAL OBSTACLE TO TURKISH-ARMENIAN RAPPROCHEMENT (1)
Mehmet Kalyoncu

Today’s Zaman
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April 26 2010
Turkey

Yerevan’s unilateral decision, as Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu describes it, to put the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement on
hold should have had a cold shower effect on those who had long been
fed up with the overcooked so-called Armenian genocide debate.

On April 22, Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan signed a decree
suspending the ratification of the "Protocol on Establishing Diplomatic
Relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey"
and "Protocol on Opening the Border between the Republic of Armenia
and the Republic of Turkey."

In his televised address to his fellow Armenians, Sarksyan said,
"Our political objective for normalizing relations between Armenia
and Turkey remains valid, and we shall consider moving forward when
we are convinced that there is the proper environment in Turkey and
the leadership in Ankara is ready to reengage in the normalization
process." Referring to Ankara’s demand for Armenia to end its
occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan before
Parliament ratifies the protocols, the Armenian president charged
Ankara with causing the breakup in the normalization process by making
the end of Armenian occupation a precondition to the ratification.

While Ankara repeatedly reiterated its wish to continue the
normalization of relations with Yerevan, on April 24 Armenian
demonstrators burned Turkish flags as well as posters of Turkish
President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
Davutoglu during the so-called Armenian genocide commemoration
ceremonies attended by President Sarksyan and other Armenian officials.

Like the Armenian officials, some inside and outside Turkey have
criticized Ankara for pushing the end of Armenian occupation in
Nagorno-Karabakh as a precondition to the ratification of the
protocols. Some even argued that there was no relationship between
the occupation and the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations
and that Azerbaijan stood as an obstacle to normalization.

As a matter of fact, the real obstacle to Turkish-Armenian
rapprochement is Armenia’s irredentist attitude toward its neighbors.

As such, Armenia’s irredentism not only constitutes a national security
threat to Turkey, but also is the major obstacle to any step toward
sustainable security and stability in the South Caucasus. So long as
Yerevan does not irreversibly change this attitude, it is unlikely
to achieve any sustainable relationship between Turkey and Armenia.

Armenia is an irredentist country. That is, it is a country with
aspirations on a part of another country’s land, over which it claims
to have the political right to control. Article 11 of the Armenian
Declaration of Independence reads, "The Republic of Armenia stands
in support of the task of achieving international recognition of the
1915 Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia," referring to
contemporary eastern Turkey as Western Armenia. Article 12 reads,
"This declaration serves as the basis for the development of the
constitution of the Republic of Armenia and, until such time as the
new constitution is approved, as the basis for the introduction of
amendments to the current constitution; and for the operation of state
authorities and the development of new legislation for the republic."

So obviously, the crux of the Armenian Constitution and of
the guideline for the state authorities is Yerevan’s unrelenting
aspirations to seize eastern Turkey as well as other possible monetary
and political reparations.

Yerevan has proven its characteristic as such by invading and occupying
20 percent of a neighboring country — Azerbaijan.

Consequently, another neighboring country, Turkey, which has long
been the main target of Yerevan’s irredentist aspirations, closed
its common border with Armenia. Although Turkey and Azerbaijan do
have deep cultural, ethnic, social, economic and political ties
and as such Turkey’s closure of the border may seem and has long
been portrayed as an emotional response to Armenia’s invasion of
Azerbaijan’s territories, Turkey’s response to the invasion is purely
a rational one.