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The Pitfalls And Possibilities; Armenian-Turkish Relations Explored

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  • The Pitfalls And Possibilities; Armenian-Turkish Relations Explored

    THE PITFALLS AND POSSIBILITIES; ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS EXPLORED
    By Allen Yekikan

    www.asbarez.com/#AMC=Open&ASBSC=Close d
    Friday, April 3, 2009

    AYF Seminar Delves Deep into Complexities of Normalization

    BIG PINES, CA--The past, present, and future of Armenian-Turkish
    relations were the focus of a three day seminar on March 20-22
    that brought some 70 young Armenian Americans to the Armenian Youth
    Federation's campgrounds in Big Pines, California.

    The seminar covered a broad range of issues related to the current
    push to normalize ties between the two countries, including the history
    of the Ottoman Empire as well as the political and economic realities
    surrounding the troubled relations between Armenia and Turkey today.

    "We wanted to present the current status of Armenian-Turkish relations
    and where it is going or should be going," said Shahan Boghikian, whose
    educational committee organized the seminar. "If and when relations
    are normalized, it is our generation, both in Turkey and Armenia,
    that will start the socialization process between the two peoples."

    The various discussions sought to build a framework of understanding
    that will help a new generation of youth actively influence Armenian
    and Turkish societies, according to Boghikian. He also noted that
    the weekend's theme was Agos, the Armenian word for pathway.

    A Mutual Understanding of History

    The bridge building role of a new generation of Armenian activists
    was the focus of the seminar's first presentation, which traced the
    development of Armenian-Turkish relations from the early days of the
    Ottoman Empire to the Armenian Genocide.

    "The entire history of Armenian-Turkish relations amounts to about
    a thousand years of shared experiences," explained Professor Garabet
    Moumjian who delivered the presentation.

    These historic issues, however, have been dealt with only marginally
    on both sides, with Turkey banning any discussion of the Armenian
    Genocide. This, along with decades of animosity toward Turkey's denial,
    has made it difficult for the budding of a positive and progressive
    movement toward normalizing relations, he explained.

    While he acknowledged that good neighborly relations are necessary
    for survival in an increasingly globalized world, Momujian noted
    that as much as this is important for Armenians, it is more important
    for Turks.

    Moumjian said that because the larger part of Turkish society has been
    in denial for the past 94 years it has forgotten about an indigenous
    people that lived with them for nearly a millennium. "They have to
    deal with it with a real effort to know the past, and study it as
    opposed to forcefully forgetting it," he said.

    Armenia's Legal Rights

    A crucial aspect of that past is the fact that the Ottoman Government
    and its secular successor have stripped the Armenian people of their
    legal and historic rights to live on their ancestral homeland free and
    secure to exercise their right to self determination. Furthermore,
    a nearly incalculable amount of real property both in terms of land
    property and possessions were lost during the Armenian Genocide.

    Any relations between Armenia and Turkey must be founded on a
    mutual acceptance of this reality, according to the weekend's second
    speaker, Steven Dadaian, who is a member of the Armenian Revolutionary
    Federation's Western USA Central Committee.

    "As with any crime, in order to help ensure that it will not
    be recommitted, there has to be a remedy for the crime," he said,
    adding that the Genocide has been a "sore on the body politic of the
    Armenian nation," carried on for almost a century because the issue
    has not been resolved.

    As a result, the Armenian nation today has very legitimate claims
    against the government of Turkey, explained Dadaian, discussing the
    Armenian nation's legal and political rights under international law
    and specifically the Treaty of Sevres.

    On November 22, 1920, US President Woodrow Wilson affixed his official
    seal on the Treaty of Sevres, which delineated the Armenian-Turkish
    border and submitted it to the Paris Peace conference. "That action
    effectively and legally transferred the historic Armenian territories
    of Erzerum, Trebizond, Van and Bitlis under Turkish occupation to
    the first Republic of Armenia," Dadaian said.

    According to Article 89 of the treaty, Turkey and Armenia had agreed to
    submit to the arbitration of the US President and accept his decision
    to establish the Armenian-Turkish frontier "in the Vilayets of Erzerum,
    Trebizond, Van and Bitlis." Article 90. Meanwhile, stipulated that both
    parties agreed to renounce "all rights and title over the territory so
    transferred" once Wilson's stamp was set on the document. Both articles
    stood as stand alone provisions within the treaty, with the full
    force of international law, whether or not the treaty was ratified.

    Because article 89 and 90 are still legally binding on Turkey, the
    "current border between between Armenia and Turkey is illegal; it's
    a de facto border," Dadaian said. "This is the crux of the dispute
    between Armenia as well as the Armenian Diaspora as heirs to this
    legacy and Turkey today."

    "The legal border and frontier of Armenia and Turkey can only be
    governed and determined by treaties and here is where the problem
    arises for the Turks," he added. "This is why they have no official
    relationship to Armenia."

    Since Armenia rarely discusses this issue it has left Turkey in
    the drivers seat as it consistently hinges the normalization of its
    relations with Armenia on signing a treaty that recognizes the current
    de-facto frontier between the two countries.

    "This is a problem, Dadaian explained. "If we sign such a treaty
    with Turkey, we will be giving up our political and legal rights,"
    he said. "The border that currently exists has no legal basis today."

    In essence, the Turkish government is using economic and military
    pressure today to force the Republic of Armenia to get what it
    cannot achieve given the current status of the treaties. This makes
    scrutiny of recent dialogue between Ankara and Yerevan all the more
    important. Under these circumstances, if Wilsonian Armenia is to be
    lost, it will have been the Republic of Armenia that gave it away and
    in the process, the diasporan heirs will have had their opportunity
    for justice undercut.

    For Dadaian, it's vital that this generation of activists work to
    ensure that the reconciliation between Armenians and Turks be rooted
    in the restoration of Armenia's legal rights. "Armenia cannot survive
    as an independent state with these current borders, let alone compete
    with Turkey, or in the world in general, on an equal economic footing,"
    he stressed.

    Economic Inequality

    The success of any relationship building measure requires a certain
    degree of equity, but that is currently devoid in the ongoing
    normalization process, noted Aram Kaloustian, the third presenter of
    the day and a member of the ARF's Western US Central Committee.

    Armenia, under blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan since 1993, has a far
    smaller and weaker economy than Turkey whose economy is ranked as the
    15th largest economy in the world. Kaloustian presented the possible
    impacts on Armenia's economy that open borders with Turkey would bring.

    Citing a 2007 AIPRG conference on this issue held in Yerevan,
    Kaloustian said that analysts have predicted that an unbound frontier
    will allow the establishment of transport networks and energy links
    from Turkey through the Caucasus to Central Asia. The end of the
    blockade, he added, will also open up Armenia's economy for Turkish
    business and vice versa.

    But Armenia's economy may be at a serious disadvantage in this
    scenario, Kaloustian noted, explaining that it is still in its infancy
    and ill-equipped to compete against its Turkish counterparts.

    "On the short term, the biggest factor that will be affected is
    the cost of transporting goods in and out of Armenia," he said,
    underscoring how the Russian-Georgian war last August closed off
    Armenia's main access point to the world, costing the country millions
    in lost trade.

    Kaloustian noted that while the cost of shipping goods into and out
    of Armenia will drastically drop and certain sectors of the economy
    would benefit, these benefits would not be felt by the majority of
    the Armenians in the republic. If the Sarkisian Administration fails
    to address key concerns regarding economic corruption in Armenia,
    any benefits of the open border would overwhelmingly only be enjoyed
    by few within the republic.

    "Armenia's economy is small and concentrated in the hands of few. This
    puts Armenia at an unequal footing to compete with Turkey," explained
    Kaloustian.

    This is a reflection of the fact that Armenia does not have the laws in
    place to protect its national economy from being monopolized by Turkish
    corporations according to the previously cited AIPRG conference report.

    Highlighting the lack of preparedness in Armenia for an open boarder,
    one need only look at the energy sector of Armenia's economy. When the
    Armenia-Turkey border opens, in the short run, Armenia will become an
    energy producer, exporting electricity from its hydroelectric plants to
    Turkey's eastern provinces, which have remained largely underdeveloped
    since the Armenian Genocide. "Unfortunately, the Armenian energy sector
    is primarily owned by foreign companies," Kaloustian pointed out.

    The average Armenian will not see the benefit of the border opening
    and it will have a limited impact in securing a short term relief from
    Armenia's deepening economic recession. In this light, it becomes
    readily apparent that there may be a significant danger of trading
    away Armenia's rights to lands necessary for its long-term stability
    and economic prosperity in return for short term reduction of costs
    and opportunities in a limited number of sectors, the benefits of
    which would unlikely be felt by the majority of Armenian citizens.

    According to Kaloustian, the lifting of the blockade may also lead to
    a upsurge in development in the occupied provinces, where impoverished
    and oppressed Kurds currently make up the majority. Investment has
    already slowly begun to trickle into places like Garin and Van,
    transforming them into prominent centers of manufacturing.

    "The richer and more developed these regions become, the more difficult
    it will be to transfer the land back to Armenia," Kaloustian warned,
    noting how more and more generations of non-Armenians will settle on
    those lands once it becomes comfortable to live there.

    A Contemporary Issue

    The seminar ended with an open forum moderated by the weekend's
    director Aram Madelian, who opened the floor for participants
    to discuss the topics presented. Debate over the implications of
    normalizing relations with Turkey and possible new avenues of activism
    toward attaining justice for the Armenian Genocide took center stage.

    During the back and forth, some participants criticized the Armenian
    government's handling of its rapprochement with Turkey; others
    expressed concerned with how open borders with Turkey would impact
    their lives here in America.

    "What's important for us to realize is that the matters discussed
    during this seminar are not issues to be relegated to the past,
    but causes for contemporary concern that must be addressed by us as
    a community, said Vache Thomassian, the chairman of the AYF, during
    the closing discussion. "Whether we live in Armenia, Europe, or the
    United States, the decisions made in Yerevan and Ankara in the coming
    months will affect us all for generations to come."
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