Opening borders between Armenia and Turkey: Why is it so complicated?
Mane Harutyunyan
The recent statements of Turkey’s president Erdogen and Armenian re-elected Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signalled a hope for the normalization of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey. Turkey said that the Armenian troop withdrawal from Nagorno Karabakh created an opportunity for negotiating border openings and new opportunities for regional trade between the two countries. From Turkey’s perspective, normalizations of the relationship between Yerevan and Istanbul can increase Turkey’s regional role, especially in the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. But are the economic incentives sufficient for healing historically hostile relationships? What is behind the narrative of normalization?
The frosty relationships between two neighboring countries, who share a 311-km border, is rooted in a complicated history. Turkey’s denial of the 1915 Armenian genocide, which costaround 1.5 million lives, is the biggest obstacle between the Armenian public and diplomatic relations with Istanbul. From 1914–17, the Ottoman government initiated the planned systematic extermination of approximately 1.5 million ethic Armenians living in present-day Eastern Turkey which Armenians considered their homeland. The mass deportations to the Syrian desert was part of the explanation of emergence of Western Armenian diaspora and the genocidial memory shapes huge part of an Armenian identity.The issue of genocide and identity between countries extends beyond politics: Genocide shaped new Armenian identity and gave a sense of unification for the nation, especially in diaspora communities. Some even argue that it reconstructed the notion of nation in Diaspora communities.There are around 7 million Armenians living outside of the country, the majority of whom are descendents of genocide survivors.
The perspectives about opening diplomatic relationships with Turkey have met massive criticism among the members of Armenian diaspora. For instance, New York Times writer and Armenian-American Meline Toumani wrote that “our obsession with 1915 was destroying us,” because the genocide recongnition comes with paramount “psychological price” which affects communities and have intergenerational impact.
The fact that Turkey directly supported Azerbaijan during the Nagorno Karabakh war increased anti-Turkish perceptions in Armenian society and raised fears about the consequences that increased Turkish regional influence can have for Armenia. Turkish direct support to Azerbaijan during the war which caused territorial losses for Armenia and post-war trauma explains why part of the Armenian public does not support this initiative. The resolution of the border issue is not merely political- on the personal terms, genocide and the recent memeories from the war make the reconcilation process hard.
- Liz Cookman, “Are Frosty Relations between Turkey and Armenia Thawing?,” www.aljazeera.com, September 1, 2021, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/1/are-frosty-relations-between-turkey-and-armenia-thawing.
- Liz Cookman, “Are Frosty Relations between Turkey and Armenia Thawing?,” www.aljazeera.com, September 1, 2021, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/1/are-frosty-relations-between-turkey-and-armenia-thawing.
- Aleksandr Grigoryan, Knar Khachatryan, and Vahram Ter-Matevosyan, “Armenia-Turkey Border Opening: What Determines the Attitude of Armenians?,” Caucasus Survey 7, no. 1 (July 19, 2018): 25–43, https://doi.org/10.1080/23761199.2018.1499298.
- Paula Johanson, The Armenian Genocide (New York, Ny: Greenhaven Publishing, 2018).
- William Schabas and Proquest (Firm, Genocide in International Law the Crime of Crimes (Cambridge, Uk ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
- Anthonie Holslag, The Transgenerational Consequences of the Armenian Genocide : Near the Foot of Mount Ararat (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
- “Diaspora — Armenian Diaspora Communities,” diaspora.gov.am, n.d., http://diaspora.gov.am/en/diasporas.
- Meline Toumani, There Was and There Was Not : A Journey through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia, and Beyond (New York: Picador, 2015).
