Hasan Kanbolat – Today’s Zaman
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was the first to congratulate Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on his election victory after he delivered his famous balcony speech on June 12 and he invited Erdoğan to Baku. Their visit has become a tradition after each election, and so Prime Minister Erdoğan traveled to Baku.
At the 5th pan-Armenian Olympics on Armenian Language, Literature and Armenian Studies, a student asked Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan: “Does a future that honors the Treaty of Batumi await us? Does a future that will give western Armenia [Eastern Anatolia] together with Mount Ararat [Mount Ağrı] back to us?” Sarksyan responded: “All this depends on you and your generation. I think my generation has successfully carried out its mission. Our inevitable task was to save Karabakh, an integral part of our homeland, from the enemy in the early 1990s. I am not saying this as a reproach for anyone. My point is that every generation has its specific responsibility and it has to accomplish it in the best way. If you and your peers do not restrain your efforts and enthusiasm and if your elders and minors, too, act like you, you can be assured that we will have one of the world's most prosperous countries. You can be sure that in most cases countries' effectiveness is not measured by their surface areas.” This, of course, triggered a crisis between Ankara and Yerevan and Prime Minister Erdoğan sent harsh messages from Baku to Yerevan.
Now, it appears, the dust has settled from the turmoil. However, existing policies do not give us much room for hope of progress in the settlement of the chronic problems between Turkey and Armenia.
Yerevan is not inclined in the least to recognize Turkey's territorial integrity. Nor is it willing to review its "genocide" theses. Also, it shows no intention to withdraw from the Azerbaijani territories it occupies. On the contrary, it tries to distract Baku -- which does not intend to resort to a military option -- with endless talks and, in the meantime, absorbs Azerbaijani territories. Armenia is also not inclined to develop a new initiative regarding Turkey. Meetings between Turkish and Armenian aquaculture-related civil society organizations or photos showing them together with smiling faces are of no use. Yerevan's bureaucratic oligarchy, inherited from the Soviet era, continues to survive. Its system needs the "fear of Turks" in order to keep the Armenian people under pressure. This applied to the Armenian diaspora, which required "anti-Turkish" sentiment to create a different past and a different identity that would make it possible for them to live as a Christian community without being assimilated by other Christian societies in Europe and Latin and North America.
Ankara is tired of extending a hand of friendship to Yerevan to no avail. Therefore, Turkey will not open its border to Armenia before the latter begins to withdraw its troops from Azerbaijani territories under Armenian occupation.
Under these circumstances, how can we expect a new rapprochement between Ankara and Yerevan? Which new policies can ensure that a new page is turned in the relationships between Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and that peace and stability is restored in the South Caucasus?
New policies should not start with an emphasis on the recent tragic developments between the Turks and Armenians, with a prejudice over the countless years of close and friendly ties the two peoples have shared. Their relationship should be maintained with ties of kinship. To this goal, Armenians working in Turkey may be issued residence permits and, if they want, Turkish ID cards. Their children may be admitted to Turkish schools. Undergraduate and graduate state scholarships may be provided to students who are Armenian citizens. Such moves may ensure a rapprochement between the Armenian people, Turkey and Turkish people.
Policies are not made only by capitals. People's dynamics, too, can contribute to the formulation of new policies. Indeed, Armenian people and intellectuals are tired of the authoritarian and repressive rule in Yerevan. The Armenians' desire for democracy and welfare is increasingly stronger. Armenian people seek to approach the European Union via Turkey, without denying their past. To this end, Armenia has to experience its “spring” sooner or later. An Armenian Spring would crack open the door to permanent peace in the South Caucasus.
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