ARMENIANS CYNICAL OVER DELAYS IN BORDER OPENING
Today’s Zaman
-armenians-cynical-over-delays-in-border-opening.h tml
July 16 2009
Turkey
On Yerevan’s central Baghramian Avenue, a billboard used to advertise
vacations in Turkey, but Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian
has told top-level officials here to take only short vacations and
to take them in Armenia.
Sarkisian cited the need for more intensive government efforts to
tackle the economic recession. "The individuals occupying the most
important positions have no right to be absent from Armenia," he said,
as quoted by Armenia’s azatutyun.am news site, adding that hard work
awaits the government in their efforts to overcome the economic crisis.
In an openly antagonistic move against Turkey, the young members of
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party (ARF or Dashnaksutyun)
also appealed to the mayor of Yerevan to remove the advertisement
for vacations in Turkey.
According to Richard Giragosian, director of the Armenian Center
for National and International Studies (ACNIS), these are signs of a
brewing distrust of Turkey in Armenia because of a sense that Turkey
has been using the prospects of reopening its border with Armenia to
gain an upper hand against the Armenian diaspora’s pressure on world
governments for genocide recognition.
Giragosian said further postponement of reopening the border with
Armenia’s estranged neighbor Turkey would make the normalization of
relations harder, as their ties were severed in 1993 after Armenia
occupied part of Azerbaijan’s territory in a war over Nagorno-Karabakh.
"The longer Turkey waits, the more they lose trust. This is the
perception in Armenia," he said.
Observers say this perception has been increasing especially after
Turkey and Armenia announced on April 22 — just ahead of US President
Barack Obama’s April 24 address commemorating the World War I-era
killings of Anatolian Armenians in the Ottoman Empire — that they
had achieved solid progress in talks on normalizing their relations
and had agreed on a roadmap for restoring ties.
Yerevan Press Club head Boris Navasardian said it was obvious that
Obama would not use the word "genocide" in his statement after the
announcement by Turkey and Armenia. Obama indeed did not use the
word. Instead he called the tragedy "Meds Yeghern," (Armenian for
"Great Catastrophe") disappointing many Armenians. This was interpreted
as Obama’s desire to avoid harming efforts by Turkey and Armenia to
establish ties and as recognition of Turkey’s importance as a partner
of the US in achieving several foreign policy goals in the region.
Following the April 22 agreement, the ARF decided to walk out of
Armenia’s coalition government, protesting the accord.
Months have passed, and there have been no steps forward by Turkey
regarding reopening the border with Armenia. Instead, Turkish officials
have stressed that "the restoration of Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity is a condition for normalizing relations between Ankara
and Yerevan."
Gevorg Ter-Gabrielyan, country director of the US, Norway, and
UK-supported Eurasia Partnership Foundation in Armenia, said
expectations for Turkey are high and are held not only by the
Armenian side.
"There are a lot of expectations, but they are not just Armenian. They
are also US and Russian. Everybody wants this border to be opened;
it is in everybody’s interest," he said.
He also said that Turkey and Armenia should establish diplomatic
relations before the two countries’ soccer match in October in Turkey.
"The border should be opened to receive Mr. [Serzh] Sarksyan. And then
they should forget to close the border," he said. "Opening the border
for Sarksyan will have a symbolic significance, but if it closes again,
it will make people very disappointed."
Indeed, Armenian President Sarksyan accused Ankara of failing to honor
agreements and "misleading the international community" last week,
although he had seemed quite optimistic about the early steps toward
normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations.
Political observers even say that Sarksyan might refuse to go to
Turkey for the upcoming soccer match if a commitment such as signing
an agreement to open the border is not made between Yerevan and Ankara.
16 July 2009, Thursday YONCA POYRAZ DOÄ~^AN Ä°STANBUL
Artists know no borders
The sixth Yerevan International Film Festival Golden Apricot was
launched on July 12, with the traditional blessing of apricots and
with dozens of movies from 65 countries, including Turkey.
Directed by Ozcan Alper, "Sonbahar" (Autumn) will be screened in the
festival’s International Competition program. In addition, Senem
Tuzen, with her feature film project "Komitas," and Sibil Cekmen,
with "Verchin Zang," will participate in the Directors Across Borders
Third Regional Co-Production Forum, according to Ä°stanbul-based
Anadolu Kultur.
The Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform, initiated by Anadolu Kultur and
the Golden Apricot International Film Festival, will also organize a
documentary film workshop within the festival. The selected projects
from Turkey are "Bavfille" by Mujde Arslan, "Once Upon a Time" by
Zeynep Guzel and Nagehan Uskan and "Hasine" by Haydar DemirtaÅ~_.