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ROUBEN SHOUGARIAN: THE BASIC CONCEPTUAL MISTAKE OF THE PRESENT DAY INTERNATIONAL MEDIATION OF THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN RELATIONS IS THAT TWO SEPARATE NOTIONS AREMIXED AND OVERLAPPED
arminfo
Tuesday, November 13, 09:59
"The basic conceptual mistake of the present day international
mediation of the Turkish-Armenian relations is that two separate
notions are mixed and overlapped", Rouben Shougarian, Former Armenian
Ambassador to the US, Lecturer at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
(Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA), says in his article "Evolution
of American Interests in the Black Sea - South Caucasus Region and
Mediation of Armenian-Turkish Relations" in the Collection of Articles
"Regional Security Issues: 2011" published by the Center for Strategic
Analysis Spectrum with the support of the Polish Embassy in Armenia.
Shougarian says that the matter concerns the normalization of
bilateral relations between the two countries and the question of
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation. "This point is especially valid
in the context of the bilateral protocols signed in Zurich by the
foreign ministers of the two countries and never ratified by their
parliaments. The text of these documents is a clumsy mixture of random
elements of reconciliation and normalization, predicated by the logic
of transitional justice. Such a normalization package should include
the opening of the border and establishment of diplomatic relations
between Turkey and Armenia without preconditions. It ought to be dealt
with solely by the governments of the two countries with the mediation
of the US Administration and the Swiss Foreign Ministry", he says.
The diplomat thinks that the geopolitical value of the Turkish-Armenian
border and the need to open it increased in parallel to the
step-by-step evolution of the US policy in the Black Sea, South
Caucasus and Central Asia during the last two decades. "What in the
early 90s had only been a matter of establishing bilateral relations
between the two countries, burdened by the tragic past, was after
1995 gradually transformed into a regional issue", he says. "In the
aftermath of the 9/11 attack, the war in Iraq and in the context of the
growing strategic importance of the Black Sea/South Caucasus region,
the Turkish- Armenian settlement became a global security issue",
says Shougarian.
In this light, Shougarian thinks that the time for tactical moves and
seasonal diplomacy has passed. The problem of the Armenian-Turkish
rapprochement has gone through a full cycle of geopolitical evolution,
transforming from a bilateral problem into a regional and global
security issue.
arminfo
Tuesday, November 13, 09:59
"The basic conceptual mistake of the present day international
mediation of the Turkish-Armenian relations is that two separate
notions are mixed and overlapped", Rouben Shougarian, Former Armenian
Ambassador to the US, Lecturer at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
(Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA), says in his article "Evolution
of American Interests in the Black Sea - South Caucasus Region and
Mediation of Armenian-Turkish Relations" in the Collection of Articles
"Regional Security Issues: 2011" published by the Center for Strategic
Analysis Spectrum with the support of the Polish Embassy in Armenia.
Shougarian says that the matter concerns the normalization of
bilateral relations between the two countries and the question of
Armenian-Turkish reconciliation. "This point is especially valid
in the context of the bilateral protocols signed in Zurich by the
foreign ministers of the two countries and never ratified by their
parliaments. The text of these documents is a clumsy mixture of random
elements of reconciliation and normalization, predicated by the logic
of transitional justice. Such a normalization package should include
the opening of the border and establishment of diplomatic relations
between Turkey and Armenia without preconditions. It ought to be dealt
with solely by the governments of the two countries with the mediation
of the US Administration and the Swiss Foreign Ministry", he says.
The diplomat thinks that the geopolitical value of the Turkish-Armenian
border and the need to open it increased in parallel to the
step-by-step evolution of the US policy in the Black Sea, South
Caucasus and Central Asia during the last two decades. "What in the
early 90s had only been a matter of establishing bilateral relations
between the two countries, burdened by the tragic past, was after
1995 gradually transformed into a regional issue", he says. "In the
aftermath of the 9/11 attack, the war in Iraq and in the context of the
growing strategic importance of the Black Sea/South Caucasus region,
the Turkish- Armenian settlement became a global security issue",
says Shougarian.
In this light, Shougarian thinks that the time for tactical moves and
seasonal diplomacy has passed. The problem of the Armenian-Turkish
rapprochement has gone through a full cycle of geopolitical evolution,
transforming from a bilateral problem into a regional and global
security issue.