Today’s Zaman
30.05.2010
News
MAHÝR ZEYNALOV
Experts: Revamp of Turkish-Armenian process still possible
Turkey could play a bigger role in the South Caucasus, Sabine Freizer,
the International Crisis Group Europe program director, said on Friday
while speaking at a panel discussion in Ýstanbul.
The remarks were voiced during a conference where Freizer said there
are possible ways to move forward in the process. She stated that the
two countries could establish consular relations and mutually
recognize political borders, while noting that these have nothing to
do with the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation was stalled this past year after
Turkey linked the process to the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute following
Azerbaijan’s growing opposition.
The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) and the
Yerevan-based Caucasus Institute (CI) joined forces to organize an
international panel featuring academics, journalists, civil society
representatives and diplomats to discuss ways to improve
Turkish-Armenian relations and revive the stalled Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation. The primary reason for the event was to announce the
launch of a new report called `Assessing the Rapprochement Process’
authored by Aybars Görgülü from TESEV, CI Director Alexander
Iskandarian and CI Deputy Director Sergey Minasyan.
The report is an attempt to analyze progress in the Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation process thus far, identify reasons why the process is
at a standstill and prescribe policy recommendations to break the
complex impasse. The report said the ratification process must
continue, adding that both Turkish and Armenian media have a
responsibility to create an atmosphere conducive to rapprochement.
`Unbiased, positive and accurate reporting is far more favorable than
the existing sensationalism common on both sides of the border,’ the
report noted.
TESEV Chairperson Can Paker said progress has been at a standstill,
adding that they still have the Nagorno-Karabakh and genocide issues
to resolve. He stated that despite these political problems, the
maximum effort should be made to open the closed border and that the
process of rapprochement between both states and societies should
continue. Paker said, while introducing the first panel, that there is
a serious public opinion regarding the process and that reconciliation
with Armenia will solve the most important foreign policy problem of
Turkey. `Now two countries have stepped onto an irreversible stage,’
Paker stated.
Görgülü said this report could not be more timely. `It’s
really important that we don’t forget the massive progress we’ve made
in recent years and that despite recent setbacks we continue to work
towards full rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia,’
Görgülü added. Speaking regarding the rapprochement process,
Görgülü said while the process is in no hurry regarding
Turkish society, it is an emergency for the Armenian side to open its
border with Turkey. Saying that the so-called genocide issue and the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem are complex and difficult issues to come to
an agreement on, Görgülü stated that the leadership of both
countries chose a policy of `constructive ambiguity’ to only slightly
imply these processes in the twin protocols signed between Turkey and
Armenia in October last year in Zurich.
Drawing a gloomy picture, Iskandarian said real changes are not
expected in the near future, adding that a year ago prospects were
better than ever to move forward with the protocols. He said the two
nations launched the reconciliation project while being unaware of the
complexities and that the process is locked but not necessarily
deadlocked. He noted that linking the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the
process would derail both processes. The CI director stated that the
main problem of a deadlock lies in Turkish domestic policy. He also
recommended that cooperation on various levels from politics to arts
needs to be sustained while trying to keep the process alive through
symbolic gestures.
Speaking on the first panel, Erdal Güven, a columnist with the
Radikal daily, said Turkey should know how Armenia sees the alleged
genocide issue. He stated that in Armenia the so-called genocide is
not open to discussion, and thus Turkish society needs to consider
this fact.
The second panel featured Thomas de Waal from the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace, where he talked about the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. Saying the EU did not pay as much attention to the conflict
as they did in the Balkans, de Waal said the international community’s
efforts were aimed at managing the conflict rather than solving it. He
also complained that there is no post-conflict program set on the
conflict.
Freizer said, while speaking at the second panel discussion, the South
Caucasus was a forgotten area and that Turkey and the EU could play a
bigger role in the region. Noting that the linkage of Nagorno-Karabakh
and the protocols is unfortunate, she stated that the Nagorno-Karabakh
dispute is extremely difficult to settle, adding that Turkey has a
unique role in the Balkans and that that could happen in the South
Caucasus as well. Freizer mentioned that instead of proposing
alternative ways to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkey should
continue to support the Minsk Group process.
From: A. Papazian