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Denial, Anger And A Bunch Of Mountains In Azerbaijan -- Acceptance,

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  • Denial, Anger And A Bunch Of Mountains In Azerbaijan -- Acceptance,

    DENIAL, ANGER AND A BUNCH OF MOUNTAINS IN AZERBAIJAN -- ACCEPTANCE, THAT'S SEVERAL STEPS LATER
    Nicholas Clayton

    The Faster Times
    http://thefastertimes.com/armenia/2010/05/04 /denial-anger-and-a-bunch-of-mountains-in-azerbaij an-acceptance-thats-several-steps-later/
    May 4 2010

    Last September, Slate columnist Christopher Hitchens wrote that
    "engaging with Iran is like having sex with someone who hates you." If
    that's true, then the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation process is
    something like an orgy of mutually despising interlocutors, each only
    agreeing to do it in the one position the other one hates.

    With that visual in mind, it shouldn't be surprising that after a year
    of back-and-forths and ups and downs the process came to a screeching
    halt last month as Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan announced he was
    "suspending" discussion of the reconciliation protocols -- a move
    that was enthusiastically welcomed by his constituents.

    But don't worry, this doesn't mean it's back to the silent game.

    Although the highly touted reconciliation protocols are considered
    to be an important part of U.S. President Barack Obama's foreign
    policy ambitions in Europe, the move to freeze the discussions was
    telegraphed by insiders well in advance and has even been endorsed
    publicly by administration officials.

    Why? Because few seem to have expected it to get this far the first
    place. The Turkish-Armenian relationship is fraught with unresolved
    baggage mostly surrounding denial, anger and a bunch of mountains
    in Azerbaijan.

    Sargsyan's announcement came 48 hours before the day that Armenians
    regard as the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide -- a nearly
    decade long pogrom of ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire that
    killed an estimated 1.5 million people. Twenty countries and 44 U.S.

    states recognize the events that occurred from 1915-1923 as genocide,
    and Armenians have been upset by their government's efforts to improve
    relations with Turkey without forcing Ankara to recognize past crimes.

    The last time Turkey and Armenia recognized one another diplomatically
    was a brief period after the fall of the Soviet Union until 1993, when
    their already rocky relationship hit a new low over Armenia's support
    for ethnic Armenian separatists in the Nagorno Karabakh (Russian for
    Mountainous or Highland Karabakh) region in neighboring Azerbaijan,
    a Turkish ally. Armenia continues to occupy Nagorno Karabakh as well
    as other Azeri territory and the two nations remain in a state of war.

    In the end, despite the unprecedented nature of the breakthrough that
    led to these talks, first announced in April 2009, neither side has
    been a particularly considerate to each other's needs, and it's not
    surprising both are saying they now need a break from each other.

    The preexisting gripes quickly reclaimed the focus of the discussion
    not long after it started; denial, anger and a bunch of mountains
    in Azerbaijan.

    In the initial aftermath of this most recent hiccup in the dialogue,
    it's not difficult to feel like both sides took one step forward and
    two steps backward. In March, after Sweden and the U.S. House Foreign
    Relations Committee recognized the Armenian Genocide, Turkish Prime
    Minister Recep Erdogan told the BBC that he was considering deporting
    100,000 Armenians he claimed were living in Turkey illegally.

    However, many observers see genuine progress amid the habitually
    fiery rhetoric. Davit Alaverdyan, the chief editor of Media Max News
    Agency in Armenia said that while he feels it is difficult to see
    where the process will lead from here, he thinks both sides have made
    achievements through the past year's bickering -- first and foremost
    that the two sides were talking at all.

    But there's more to it than that.

    When Obama gave a speech on the anniversary of the genocide last April
    using the phrase "Medz Yeghern" -- the Armenian word for the genocide,
    meaning "Great Massacres" -- he was falling short of using the G-word
    like he promised during his campaign for president, but nonetheless
    pleased many on both sides.

    Suat Kiniklioglu, a member of the Turkish parliament and spokesman
    of the Turkish Foreign Affairs Commission from the ruling Justice
    and Development party told Media Max in an interview at the time,
    "I believe that "Medz Yeghern" is an invaluable term for a positive
    language about the events of 1915. "Medz Yeghern" is a term whose scope
    should be widened. World War I and the events leading to the war,
    namely the physical removal of Turks and Muslims from the Caucasus,
    the Balkans and the Middle East was a Great Catastrophe for us as
    well. Turks, Kurds and Armenians in the eastern front of the empire
    truly experienced a Great Catastrophe [...] The Armenians lost their
    homes and property and had to leave Anatolia. There were many deaths
    and it was an immensely sad chapter of this region's history [...] I
    hope that when we establish diplomatic relations, open borders and
    when our peoples get the chance of direct communication with each
    other, we will be able to elaborate positive wordings."

    It's certain that there is no consensus for movement towards genocide
    recognition in Turkey -- it remains illegal to insult the Turkish
    nation or ethnicity, a law that has been invoked to prosecute Turks
    calling for genocide recognition.

    But Armenians continue to point to various signs that an internal
    dialogue within Turkey about its hard past is beginning. A few hundred
    Turkish artists and intellectuals marched in Istanbul commemorating
    the 95th anniversary of the genocide this year chanting "never again."

    Also, information security analyst and blogger, Samvel Martirosyan
    pointed out that new Turkish directives to its diplomats encourage
    them to engage with Armenian communities abroad and publicly discuss
    and debate the facts of 1915-1923.

    All of this he said shows things are moving, albeit so slowly it's
    hard to actually see it. Meanwhile, Alaverdyan said in a Media Max
    report that the temporary freeze with Turkey will give Armenia more
    time to devote to resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict while
    still appearing to be the one committed to the process.

    While no one is quite sure when, eventually the orgy of malice and
    mistrust will be in full swing again in the near future.

    Nicholas Clayton lives in Tbilisi, Georgia and works as a professor
    of journalism and a freelance reporter covering the Caucasus.
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