BY ISMET BERKAN
RADIKAL- There has been a great revival in Turkey’s initiatives concerning Armenia with recent efforts from both Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Foreign Ministry. The reason for this revival isn’t developments in Armenia or on the international stage, but Ankara’s initiatives. Actually, Turkish-Armenian relations are the same as they were, for example, five years ago. In other words, at that time both Armenia and other countries under its influence wanted Turkey to open its border with Armenia, and today the same thing holds. At that time, Turkey said the reason for the closed border came from the Nagorno-Karabagh issue and Armenia’s invasion of Azerbaijani territories; it’s saying the same thing today.
Armenian President Robert Kocharian has been emphasizing the so-called Armenian genocide since the day he took the office. Former Armenian President Levon Ter Petrosyan talked about the same thing as well. The word ‘genocide’ makes the relations of two countries more difficult. Indeed, since Kocharian became president, Turkey’s embargo on Armenia has grown harsher. The Armenian people are suffering under this embargo and there are great economic problems in this small country. Besides, Kocharian’s uncompromising stance has brought the country to a serious economic collapse, because the population is fleeing the country. Turkey used to only watch this situation. However, recently Turkey started to seek dialogue with Armenia, maybe in order to impress European Union member countries, or due to other reasons. In the past, Armenia was pursuing Turkey, but now there’s an impression that the situation is just the opposite due to the ignorance and carelessness of certain columnist in the Turkish press. However, there’s nothing new in this confusion. The key for Turkish-Armenian relations is the Nagorno-Karabagh issue and Armenia’s occupation of one-fifth of Azerbaijan’s territory. If the occupation ends and Armenia and Azerbaijan reach an agreement, this situation would relieve Turkish-Armenian relations as well. At least, both countries would be able to talk about their bilateral relations. The issue of the so-called genocide is a political matter not only between Turkey and Armenia, but also between Turkey and the Armenian diaspora living in the West. If one day Turkish-Armenian relations were normalized, the pressure of the genocide allegations on Turkey would be lighter.