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The Future Of Armenian-Turkish Relations Discussed

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  • The Future Of Armenian-Turkish Relations Discussed

    THE FUTURE OF ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS DISCUSSED

    armradio.am
    02.10.2008 17:34

    The Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS)
    today convened a foreign policy roundtable to consider all aspects of
    the future of Armenian-Turkish relations. The meeting brought together
    leading analysts, policy specialists, public and political figures, NGO
    representatives, members of the press, as well as a group of students
    and teaching staff from Istanbul's Bilgi and Fatih Universities who
    are visiting Yerevan on the invitation of the Civil Society Institute.

    Welcoming the audience with opening remarks, ACNIS research
    coordinator Syuzanna Barseghian underscored the imperative of
    reaching new agreements, based on mutual interests, toward normalizing
    Armenian-Turkish relations.

    "Our current relations are more emotional and less rational and
    therefore many issues seem irresolvable. And the objective of such
    discussions is to reveal the whole potential for partnership and its
    resources which, I believe, can serve toward historical reconciliation
    and building of the best common future," Barseghian said.

    The day's first speaker, director Haik Demoyan of the Armenian
    Genocide Museum-Institute, reflected on the media's role in the
    normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. According to him, the
    media coverage of this extremely sensitive topic needs a serious
    methodological adjustment and it is not a coincidence that certain
    demands periodically were made of20the media as to their method of
    covering the events of war and genocide. "The media have a great
    import and specifically in the process of reconciliation.

    They either can play a negative role and cause problems and hinder the
    reconciliation process, or be a part of it," Demoyan said. And as case
    in point, he made note of the compulsion to use quotation marks when
    using the term genocide and to refer to the Armenian Genocide as "the
    events of 1915," the deliberate dissemination of false information,
    and the taking of comments out of their general context and presenting
    as separate information.

    In his turn, deputy dean Å~^ammas Salur of the Department of Political
    Science of Istanbul Fatih University looked at the historiographical
    phases and the changes in the modern historiography of Turkey. "Even
    though the Turkish-Islamic synthesis in history writing has some
    canonical views, and especially a staunch defense against the
    transformation and liberalism in Turkish policy, the 1980s have
    brought a more dynamic cultural atmosphere to Turkey," Salur noted,
    also adding that through serious discussions regarding the talks
    with the European Union, a new type of history writing is emerging
    in Turkey. According to the speaker, this new type is more tolerant
    toward others and--albeit difficult to be accepted by a large part of
    the public--even accepting of others as equal citizens, "and history
    writing is evolving toward that end," Salur argued.

    The day's final speaker, Ambassador Ara Papian, director of the
    Modus Vivendi Social and Scientific Research Center, delved into the
    unclaimed pages of Armenian-Turkish relations. He presented those pages
    against the backdrop of the de jure boundary between Armenia and Turkey
    that was determined, at the turn of the 20th Century, by US president
    Woodrow Wilson's Arbitral Award. As stated by Papian, this document
    was signed and sealed on November 22, 1920 and officially entitled:
    "Decision of the President of the United States of America respecting
    the Frontier between Turkey and Armenia, Access for Armenia to the Sea,
    and the Demilitarization of Turkish Territory adjacent to the Armenian
    Frontier." Pursuant to the Arbitral Award, the title and rights
    of the Republic of Armenia were recognized on the provinces of Van,
    Bitlis, Erzerum, and Trebizond of the former Ottoman Empire. "President
    Wilson's binding and irreversible Arbitral Award went into force the
    day it was reached and remains in effect to this day," Papian asserted.

    The roundtable discussants also included students Erman Bakırcı,
    Emel Guner, and Cagla Gur from the Department of International
    Relations of Istanbul Bilgi University; students Kevser Kandaz,
    Umit Kurt, Mustafa Ozdemir, and Zafer Ozkan from the Department
    of International Relations of Istanbul Fatih University; director
    Artak Kirakosian of the Civil Society Institu te; Ruben Mehrabian
    from the Armenian Center for Political and International Research;
    coordinator Armen Aghayan of the "Defense of Liberated Territories"
    social initiative; director-announcer Gayzag Palanjian of "The Road
    for the Enhancement of Armenia-Diaspora Relations" television program
    in Los Angeles; journalist Gayane Arustamian; and several others.

    --Boundary_(ID_mmLG3WzbyfmurBXtDwNSmw)--
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