Tweet
TURKISH-ARMENIAN RELATIONS BACK ON THE AGENDA AS DAVUTOGLU HEADS TO YEREVAN
Blouin News
Dec 12 2013
December 11, 2013 by Lora Moftah
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is on his way to Yerevan
on Thursday, in a visit that could offer the beginning of a possible
restart to long-stalled Turkish-Armenian normalization efforts. Though
Davutoglu is officially traveling to attend the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation forum, his attendance at the Armenian-hosted conference
has sparked speculation of possible bilateral talks between the two
states, which have not maintained diplomatic relations since the
failure of the 2009 Zurich Protocols.
There are already reports afloat that the minister will propose
re-opening a border gate between the two countries. However, the
attached condition that Armenia withdraw from two occupied areas
of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region will no doubt make this
proposal a non-starter for the Armenians, who have long been opposed
to linking their territorial conflict with Turkish ally Azerbaijan
to Armenian-Turkish bilateral relations. Armenian officials have
already begun preemptively pushing back against Davutoglu ahead of his
arrival, with Deputy Foreign Minister Savarsh Kocharyan challenging
the Turkish F.M. to visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial - not much
of an invitation to move beyond the current state of antagonism,
at least from Ankara's standpoint.
The sense that possible talks are doomed to failure before they even
begin isn't so much a statement on the intractability of the issues
between the two governments (though that is certainly part of the
problem) as it is a window into the AKP's foreign policy strategy
in light of some glaring failures in recent months. Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's missteps and fumbles with Turkey's Arab
relations have added up in a big way for his government and pretty
much torpedoed the success of Davutoglu's "Neo-Ottomanism" strategy,
one of the AKP's crowning political achievements.
A legislative motion filed this week to censure Davutoglu over the
failure of the government's foreign policy may have eventually failed
in the AKP-dominated parliament but should still offer a reminder that
the issue has become a big target for the Islamist party's opponents.
With Arab ties in tatters and Kurdish peace on the rocks, it might
make sense that Ankara is pivoting towards seemingly lower-stakes
foreign issues such as these conflicts with their European neighbors
(Davutoglu is also scheduled to visit Athens on December 13).
The AKP may be hoping that making overtures in this direction could
at least give the impression that Turkish foreign policy is not in
shambles but it's important to remember that Turkey's conflicts with
Armenia and Greece are no less politically loaded. As the controversy
over the Hagia Sophia's conversion shows, there are still major
points of sensitivity here. If Turkey's record in the past months is
at all predictive, look for these efforts (the good faith of which
is questionable) to do little to up the AKP's foreign-policy cred
and even less to reduce cross-border tensions.
http://blogs.blouinnews.com/blouinbeatworld/2013/12/11/turkish-armenian-relations-back-on-the-agenda-as-davutoglu-heads-to-yerevan/
From: Baghdasarian
Blouin News
Dec 12 2013
December 11, 2013 by Lora Moftah
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is on his way to Yerevan
on Thursday, in a visit that could offer the beginning of a possible
restart to long-stalled Turkish-Armenian normalization efforts. Though
Davutoglu is officially traveling to attend the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation forum, his attendance at the Armenian-hosted conference
has sparked speculation of possible bilateral talks between the two
states, which have not maintained diplomatic relations since the
failure of the 2009 Zurich Protocols.
There are already reports afloat that the minister will propose
re-opening a border gate between the two countries. However, the
attached condition that Armenia withdraw from two occupied areas
of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region will no doubt make this
proposal a non-starter for the Armenians, who have long been opposed
to linking their territorial conflict with Turkish ally Azerbaijan
to Armenian-Turkish bilateral relations. Armenian officials have
already begun preemptively pushing back against Davutoglu ahead of his
arrival, with Deputy Foreign Minister Savarsh Kocharyan challenging
the Turkish F.M. to visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial - not much
of an invitation to move beyond the current state of antagonism,
at least from Ankara's standpoint.
The sense that possible talks are doomed to failure before they even
begin isn't so much a statement on the intractability of the issues
between the two governments (though that is certainly part of the
problem) as it is a window into the AKP's foreign policy strategy
in light of some glaring failures in recent months. Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan's missteps and fumbles with Turkey's Arab
relations have added up in a big way for his government and pretty
much torpedoed the success of Davutoglu's "Neo-Ottomanism" strategy,
one of the AKP's crowning political achievements.
A legislative motion filed this week to censure Davutoglu over the
failure of the government's foreign policy may have eventually failed
in the AKP-dominated parliament but should still offer a reminder that
the issue has become a big target for the Islamist party's opponents.
With Arab ties in tatters and Kurdish peace on the rocks, it might
make sense that Ankara is pivoting towards seemingly lower-stakes
foreign issues such as these conflicts with their European neighbors
(Davutoglu is also scheduled to visit Athens on December 13).
The AKP may be hoping that making overtures in this direction could
at least give the impression that Turkish foreign policy is not in
shambles but it's important to remember that Turkey's conflicts with
Armenia and Greece are no less politically loaded. As the controversy
over the Hagia Sophia's conversion shows, there are still major
points of sensitivity here. If Turkey's record in the past months is
at all predictive, look for these efforts (the good faith of which
is questionable) to do little to up the AKP's foreign-policy cred
and even less to reduce cross-border tensions.
http://blogs.blouinnews.com/blouinbeatworld/2013/12/11/turkish-armenian-relations-back-on-the-agenda-as-davutoglu-heads-to-yerevan/
From: Baghdasarian