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Armenia Sends Official to Erdoan Inauguration

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  • Armenia Sends Official to Erdoan Inauguration

    Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
    IWPR Caucasus Reporting #750
    Sept 4 2014

    Armenia Sends Official to ErdoÄ?an Inauguration

    Move seen as tentative step towards reviving diplomatic process.

    By Yekaterina Poghosyan - Caucasus


    The last time Armenia and Turkey started working towards a better
    relationship, the attempt foundered. Now the two countries might be
    about to give it another go.

    Armenian foreign minister Eduard Nalbandyan went to Ankara on August
    28 to attend the presidential inauguration of Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an,
    previously Turkey's prime minister.

    Nalbandyan's presence gave rise to talk that the reconciliation
    process might be about to restart.

    There are huge divides to be bridged. Above all, Armenians accuse the
    modern Turkish state of ignoring a genocide of Armenians carried out
    by the Ottoman authorities in 1915. Turkey acknowledges that killings
    took place, but rejects the use of the term `genocide'.

    In more recent history, Turkey closed its border with post-Soviet
    Armenia in 1993 because of the Nagorny Karabakh conflict. The Turks
    remain close allies of Azerbaijan, with which Armenia is still not at
    peace.

    Despite this difficult history, Ankara and Yerevan made a real effort
    to seek a rapprochement some years ago. In September 2008, President
    Abdullah Gül paid an unprecedented visit to Armenia for a football
    match between the two national sides. In October the following year,
    after a lengthy talks process, the two countries' foreign ministers
    signed accords in Zürich on restoring relations and reopening the
    border. The process was led by Nalbandyan and Turkish foreign minister
    Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu.

    Neither country's parliament ratified the agreements, however, and the
    whole process ground to a halt. In April 2010, Armenian president
    Serzh Sargsyan formally stopped the ratification process, accusing
    Turkey of trying to insert new conditions, and the process ` known as
    `football diplomacy' because of Gül's original trip ` came to an end.

    When DavutoÄ?lu visited Yerevan in December 2013 ` officially for a
    Black Sea regional meeting ` expectations were raised, but little came
    out of his meeting with Nalbandyan. (See No Signs of Turkey-Armenia
    Thaw.)

    DavutoÄ?lu's appointment as prime minister to replace ErdoÄ?an as prime
    minister is seen as no bad thing among those Armenians hoping for a
    resumption in talks. He and Nalbandyan know each other, and both
    presided over the last set of complex negotiations.

    According to Sergei Minasyan, deputy director of the Caucasus
    Institute, Nalbandyan's visit was an opportunities to renew those ties
    and also to show that `despite all the difficulties in relations with
    Ankara, it [Armenia] is not prepared to isolate itself.'

    Whoever is in charge, though, will be hard pressed to reconcile the
    two states on the genocide question.

    In Ankara, Nalbandyan had a brief conversation with ErdoÄ?an after the
    inauguration ceremony and handed over a formal invitation to visit
    Armenia in April 2015 to attend ceremonies for the 100th anniversary
    of 1915.

    It is hard to say whether this will happen. For Armenians, the point
    is to get the Turks to acknowledge that genocide took place.

    Ahead of the 2014 commemoration, ErdoÄ?an issued a carefully-worded
    statement noting that `Armenians remember the suffering experienced in
    that period, just like every other citizen of the Ottoman Empire¦. The
    events of the First World War are our shared pain.' This fell well
    short of what Yerevan wanted, and presidential chief of staff Vigen
    Sargsyan called it as `just another, though perhaps more refined,
    attempt to deny and conceal the fact of the Armenian genocide'.

    `More is required from Turkey ` to acknowledge and unequivocally
    condemn the crimes committed during this period,' he said. (See also
    Armenians Call on Turks to Say "Genocide".)

    Commentators in Yerevan believe Turkey is under pressure to come up
    with a better formula ahead of the 100-year commemoration.

    `Turkey, like Armenia, takes a fairly serious view of the 100th
    anniversary of the genocide,' Minasyan said. `It's clear that it's
    important for Turkey to take certain measures so as to avoid being the
    focus of news, political, emotional and moral pressure on the 100th
    anniversary.'

    The invitation to ErdoÄ?an was intended to give the Turkish leadership
    `an opportunity to somehow come to terms with history and try to turn
    a new page in its relationship with Armenia and with the Armenian
    diaspora,' Minasyan added.

    As it embarked on a delicate diplomatic process, the Armenian
    government came under fire from the nationalist Dashnaktsutyun which
    denounced Nalbandyan's presence at the Turkish leader's inauguration,
    ErdoÄ?an and his `anti-Armenian statements', and the long-dead Zürich
    accrords.

    `Dashnaktsutyun repeatedly stated that Armenia must refuse to sign
    these [2009] protocols. Instead, the authorities are trying to
    reanimate them despite Turkey's hostile attitude,' party official Giro
    Manoyan told the Ð?1+ news site.

    Under attack, the ruling Republican Party defended the government's actions.

    According to party spokesman Eduard Sharmazanov, `By handing over the
    invitation in Ankara, Armenia has proved that it will fight against
    denial of the Armenian genocide, and shown that we expect the
    international community and Turkey to come to terms with reality. If
    he [ErdoÄ?an] comes to Armenia, it will mean he acknowledges the fact
    that a crime was committed.'

    Yekaterina Poghosyan is a reporter for the Mediamax news agency.

    http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenia-sends-official-erdo%C4%9F-inauguration

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