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ANKARA: Talking closed borders

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  • ANKARA: Talking closed borders

    Cihan News Agency (CNA)
    November 27, 2014 Thursday


    Talking closed borders

    by CENGÄ°Z AKTAR


    Ä°STANBUL (CÄ°HAN)- Over the weekend, at Ankara University's Faculty of
    Political Science, the famous Mülkiye, the Hrant Dink Foundation
    hosted an international academic conference titled `Sealed Gate: The
    Prospects of the Turkey-Armenia Border.'

    A total of 27 papers and many participants who were present at the
    venue or via the Internet, from both Turkey and abroad, focused on
    `how could a border still be closed nowadays and how it might be
    opened up again.'

    Ever since states started to draw borders, people have, in a way, been
    taken hostage inside or outside of these lines. Simultaneously with
    the drawing-up of borders, people (and all moving beings) have always
    been rebelling against this fait accompli and penetrating them. The
    history of activities termed as illegal and smuggling are synchronous
    with the history of borders.

    In a globalized world, borders have become rather irrelevant. For
    decades we have already had the European Union, where most internal
    borders between nation-states have been lifted -- a first of its kind
    in the history of humanity. The borders created on the European
    continent by the bipolar world that emerged after World War II
    disappeared overnight. In spite of such a trend, the land we live on
    is still noted for its borders, not to mention its closed borders. One
    of them is the border with Armenia. A border that is closed describes
    well the limits of those politicians ruling the country in solving the
    problems.

    `Closed consciousness' is used to refer to those who are in a coma.
    Turkey, which has closed its border with its neighbor, is also in a
    consciousness coma about the Armenians on the other side of that
    border. There is no awareness about how the neighbors live, what they
    feel and think. As for those Armenians living on our side of the
    closed border, the information is no more abundant.

    The things that people can do to open a closed border that cannot be
    opened are both few and many in number. The de facto and de jure
    opening of the border with Armenia is incumbent on the state that
    sealed the gate in 1993. As a matter of fact, the Zurich Protocols --
    which were signed in 2009, though not ratified and hence not
    implemented -- were the first indicators of a constructive state
    attitude about such a serious matter. Alas, they yielded no concrete
    result. As for society, it cannot really do much for the opening of
    the border other than opposing the current situation. Currently, there
    exists a network of connections that is as inconvenient as it is
    absurd. The circulation of goods and people flows via Georgia.
    However, this makes sense neither in political nor economic terms and
    even less in human relations. As a matter of fact, we know today that
    the region roughly encompassing Kars-Ardahan-IÄ?dır is isolated from
    its hinterland because it cannot be crossed freely. That means
    significant economic, social and human decay for both sides of the
    border. Let us not forget that Kars and IÄ?dır are among Turkey's
    least-developed regions. Hence, since 1993, many grassroots
    initiatives emanating from Kars demanded that the border be opened by
    departing from this assessment.

    The papers presented at the Ankara conference focused deeply on the
    vast damage caused by the sealing off of the Armenian-Turkish border.
    We have seen time and time again that borders are often not only
    physical facts concretized by a military presence and wire fences but
    that they are also red lines drawn in minds. Despite this, we witness
    the natural transitional nature of border regions and the efforts made
    by people to transcend the artificial lines drawn around and between
    them. During the Cold War era, news from villages along the
    Turkish-Armenian border line would be sung to the other side in the
    form of folk songs while locals were working on their lands!

    The lack of vision and political preferences shown by governments of
    bordering countries leave those pushing for the opening of borders
    with a unique alternative: to relentlessly continue to deepen modes of
    communication between people through cross-border activities,
    including economic interaction, despite all the odds in order to
    transcend the borders, be it physically or mentally.




    From: A. Papazian
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