DENIAL, ANGER AND A BUNCH OF MOUNTAINS IN AZERBAIJAN — ACCEPTANCE, THAT’S SEVERAL STEPS LATER
Nicholas Clayton
The Faster Times
/denial-anger-and-a-bunch-of-mountains-in-azerbaij an-acceptance-thats-several-steps-later/
May 4 2010
Last September, Slate columnist Christopher Hitchens wrote that
"engaging with Iran is like having sex with someone who hates you." If
that’s true, then the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation process is
something like an orgy of mutually despising interlocutors, each only
agreeing to do it in the one position the other one hates.
With that visual in mind, it shouldn’t be surprising that after a year
of back-and-forths and ups and downs the process came to a screeching
halt last month as Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan announced he was
"suspending" discussion of the reconciliation protocols — a move
that was enthusiastically welcomed by his constituents.
But don’t worry, this doesn’t mean it’s back to the silent game.
Although the highly touted reconciliation protocols are considered
to be an important part of U.S. President Barack Obama’s foreign
policy ambitions in Europe, the move to freeze the discussions was
telegraphed by insiders well in advance and has even been endorsed
publicly by administration officials.
Why? Because few seem to have expected it to get this far the first
place. The Turkish-Armenian relationship is fraught with unresolved
baggage mostly surrounding denial, anger and a bunch of mountains
in Azerbaijan.
Sargsyan’s announcement came 48 hours before the day that Armenians
regard as the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide — a nearly
decade long pogrom of ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire that
killed an estimated 1.5 million people. Twenty countries and 44 U.S.
states recognize the events that occurred from 1915-1923 as genocide,
and Armenians have been upset by their government’s efforts to improve
relations with Turkey without forcing Ankara to recognize past crimes.
The last time Turkey and Armenia recognized one another diplomatically
was a brief period after the fall of the Soviet Union until 1993, when
their already rocky relationship hit a new low over Armenia’s support
for ethnic Armenian separatists in the Nagorno Karabakh (Russian for
Mountainous or Highland Karabakh) region in neighboring Azerbaijan,
a Turkish ally. Armenia continues to occupy Nagorno Karabakh as well
as other Azeri territory and the two nations remain in a state of war.
In the end, despite the unprecedented nature of the breakthrough that
led to these talks, first announced in April 2009, neither side has
been a particularly considerate to each other’s needs, and it’s not
surprising both are saying they now need a break from each other.
The preexisting gripes quickly reclaimed the focus of the discussion
not long after it started; denial, anger and a bunch of mountains
in Azerbaijan.
In the initial aftermath of this most recent hiccup in the dialogue,
it’s not difficult to feel like both sides took one step forward and
two steps backward. In March, after Sweden and the U.S. House Foreign
Relations Committee recognized the Armenian Genocide, Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Erdogan told the BBC that he was considering deporting
100,000 Armenians he claimed were living in Turkey illegally.
However, many observers see genuine progress amid the habitually
fiery rhetoric. Davit Alaverdyan, the chief editor of Media Max News
Agency in Armenia said that while he feels it is difficult to see
where the process will lead from here, he thinks both sides have made
achievements through the past year’s bickering — first and foremost
that the two sides were talking at all.
But there’s more to it than that.
When Obama gave a speech on the anniversary of the genocide last April
using the phrase "Medz Yeghern" — the Armenian word for the genocide,
meaning "Great Massacres" — he was falling short of using the G-word
like he promised during his campaign for president, but nonetheless
pleased many on both sides.
Suat Kiniklioglu, a member of the Turkish parliament and spokesman
of the Turkish Foreign Affairs Commission from the ruling Justice
and Development party told Media Max in an interview at the time,
"I believe that "Medz Yeghern" is an invaluable term for a positive
language about the events of 1915. "Medz Yeghern" is a term whose scope
should be widened. World War I and the events leading to the war,
namely the physical removal of Turks and Muslims from the Caucasus,
the Balkans and the Middle East was a Great Catastrophe for us as
well. Turks, Kurds and Armenians in the eastern front of the empire
truly experienced a Great Catastrophe […] The Armenians lost their
homes and property and had to leave Anatolia. There were many deaths
and it was an immensely sad chapter of this region’s history […] I
hope that when we establish diplomatic relations, open borders and
when our peoples get the chance of direct communication with each
other, we will be able to elaborate positive wordings."
It’s certain that there is no consensus for movement towards genocide
recognition in Turkey — it remains illegal to insult the Turkish
nation or ethnicity, a law that has been invoked to prosecute Turks
calling for genocide recognition.
But Armenians continue to point to various signs that an internal
dialogue within Turkey about its hard past is beginning. A few hundred
Turkish artists and intellectuals marched in Istanbul commemorating
the 95th anniversary of the genocide this year chanting "never again."
Also, information security analyst and blogger, Samvel Martirosyan
pointed out that new Turkish directives to its diplomats encourage
them to engage with Armenian communities abroad and publicly discuss
and debate the facts of 1915-1923.
All of this he said shows things are moving, albeit so slowly it’s
hard to actually see it. Meanwhile, Alaverdyan said in a Media Max
report that the temporary freeze with Turkey will give Armenia more
time to devote to resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict while
still appearing to be the one committed to the process.
While no one is quite sure when, eventually the orgy of malice and
mistrust will be in full swing again in the near future.
Nicholas Clayton lives in Tbilisi, Georgia and works as a professor
of journalism and a freelance reporter covering the Caucasus.