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  • ACNIS Discusses Turkey's Potential Role in View of Regiona

    PRESS RELEASE
    Armenian Center for National and International Studies
    75 Yerznkian Street
    Yerevan 375033, Armenia
    Tel: (+374 - 10) 52.87.80 or 27.48.18
    Fax: (+374 - 10) 52.48.46
    E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
    Website: www.acnis.am

    May 5, 2005


    ACNIS Discusses Turkey's Potential Role
    in View of Regional Security and Cooperation

    Yerevan -- The Armenian Center for National and International Studies
    (ACNIS) today convened a specialized policy roundtable on "Turkey:
    New Face with a New Role, or New Image with an Old Role?" The meeting
    brought together academic circles, policy analysts, media and NGO
    communities to view Armenia 's neighborhood policy, geopolitical
    developments, and points of reference for possible cooperation and
    security in the region in the context of Armenia's changing environment
    and national interests. It particularly focused on the new role of
    an important actor in the region, Turkey.

    ACNIS research coordinator Stiopa Safarian greeted the invited guests
    and public participants with opening remarks. "Armenia's relations with
    Turkey are complicated and undefined. What can we expect of Turkey,
    a country which aspires to be democratic and become a new member
    of the European Union: transformation to good behavior or chaos,
    understanding of historical sin or new manifestations of constant
    denial, threats and security challenges? We expect your active
    participation on this and other actual issues," he underlined.

    Artak Shakarian, Turkish analyst of the Institute of Oriental
    Studies at the National Academy of Sciences, delivered a paper on
    "The Pre-Genocidal Processes in Ottoman Turkey: Mass Deportations as a
    Means to Oversee the Subject Peoples." He overviewed Ottoman Turkey's
    policy toward subject peoples and particularly toward Armenians in
    the early period which aimed to their estrangement in and deportation
    from their homeland. "The Ottoman rulers' continuous massacres and
    predetermined mass deportations of Christian elements reached their
    culmination point in 1915," Shakarian said. In his opinion, the Young
    Turks took advantage of World War One, resting assured that nobody
    would pay attention to the killing of the Armenians and their homeland
    in the overall turmoil.

    The focal points of Tatevik Manoukian's address were the latest
    developments regarding the approaches toward the Armenian Genocide in
    Turkey. In the Turkish media the much- referenced courts martial of
    the Young Turks, which started in April 1919, were the first attempt to
    recognize the Armenian Genocide, though in the aftermath the Kemalist
    regime, which later came to power, adopted and pursued a policy of
    denial. The young scholar from the same department of the Academy
    of Sciences was convinced that Turkey's accession to the European
    Union and the active processes toward recognition of the Armenian
    Genocide promoted Turkish society's awareness that resulted in some
    real assessments in that country. "Nevertheless, the predominant
    thinking in Turkey is the following: nothing happened, the Armenians
    and the Turks lived in peace for ages. Whatever happened during WWI
    was the inevitable consequence of the war. And the new generation is
    not responsible for whatever happened," concluded Manoukian.

    Haik Demoyan, lecturer of history at Yerevan State University,
    reflected on "The Prospects of Armenian-Turkish Relations in the
    Context of Turkey's European Integration." At the beginning of the
    establishment of Armenian-Turkish relations in the early 1990s,
    Turkey applied a militant policy toward Armenia which was followed
    by deployment and concentration of forces, considerable military
    assistance to a third country, the economic blockade, and so on. In
    the historian's vision, Turkey was afraid of the Armenian "tsunami"
    even then, as the newly independent Armenia was perceived as a serious
    threat in realization of the Armenian cause. "We have provided the
    critical minimum which is necessary for the internationalization of
    the Armenian Genocide and need now to take new steps of a different
    caliber," said Demoyan, adding that one of such measures is the
    restoration of Western Armenians to their historical patrimony and
    the rebuilding of Armenian churches, culture and other values.

    The formal interventions were followed by contributions by Professor
    Rouben Safrastian, head of Turkish Department at the Institute
    of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences; Yerjanik
    Abgarian of "Armat" Center; Emma Begijanian, analyst of Middle East
    Affairs; Professor Babken Haroutiunian, chairholder in Armenian
    History at Yerevan State University; Rozalia Gabrielian of the
    Slavonic University; analyst Aram Ananian of the "Mitk" Analytical
    Center; Avetik Ishkhanian of the Armenian Helsinki Committee; ACNIS
    analyst Hovsep Khurshudian; Tamar Gevorgian of United Labor Party;
    and several others.

    Founded in 1994 by Armenia's first Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi K.
    Hovannisian and supported by a global network of contributors, ACNIS
    serves as a link between innovative scholarship and the public policy
    challenges facing Armenia and the Armenian people in the post-Soviet
    world. It also aspires to be a catalyst for creative, strategic
    thinking and a wider understanding of the new global environment. In
    2005, the Center focuses primarily on civic education, conflict
    resolution, and applied research on critical domestic and foreign
    policy issues for the state and the nation.

    For further information on the Center or the full graphics of the
    poll results, call (37410) 52-87-80 or 27-48-18; fax (37410) 52-48-46;
    e-mail [email protected] or [email protected] or visit www.acnis.am.
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