Turkey-Armenia talks normalization

[Dai Toruko]

Recent engagement between Ankara and Yerevan to thaw their decadeslong frozen ties should be viewed as normalization rather than reconciliation, Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council (TABDC) Vice Chairperson Noyan Soyak said.

Speaking to the Anadolu Agency (AA), Soyak highlighted that one of the foremost reasons for Turkey to withhold direct talks or start a normalization process with Yerevan was the Armenian occupation in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

After a cease-fire between Azerbaijan and Armenia was realized through Moscow's mediation, it started the process between Turkey and Armenia, which is not a very unexpected development, said Soyak.

Relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991 in the border regions of Nagorno-Karabakh, which were liberated by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces in a 44-day war that ended in November 2020 with a Russian-brokered cease-fire.

Last September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the end of the conflict paves the way for an improvement in Turkey-Armenia relations.



"The South Caucasus is a very important and neighboring geography for Moscow," Soyak said, referring to the conflict.

"Having its regional disputes with Georgia in the Caucasus and Ukraine in the southwest – probably Russia wouldn't like to have another continuing conflict in the rest of the South Caucasus, which might have further weakened Russia's influence in the region," he said. "Russia plays a grandiose role in Armenia in many ways," he added.

"Moreover, strategic industries, including defense, energy, railways and the transportation sector, a large part of finance and communication infrastructures in Armenia are under Russian control," he said.

"Russia's influence over Azerbaijan, although it is not as visible as the case in Armenia, can also not be denied," according to Soyak.

Russia is the second-largest military supplier to Azerbaijan, he said.

"The biggest military supplier to Azerbaijan is Israel, which gives a glimpse of the idea of Israeli interests in the conflicted region, having a long border to Iran in the south," he said.

"Some senior bureaucrats in Baku privately suggest that a Turkish-Armenian normalization might even help smooth their own postwar relations with Armenia by showing the benefits of shifting from a war footing to an everyone-wins focus on trade. Therefore, we can easily say that Baku's approach to the normalization process has diverted 180 degrees," he said.

The first meeting of special representatives from Turkey and Armenia toward normalization was held last month.

The proposal for having the meeting in Moscow came from the Armenian side, Soyak reminded.

"This might easily be considered that Russia has a positive attitude toward the process. It also has another meaning that although Russia is not a party to this specific process," he said.

"We do not know much details, but both countries said the meeting was conducted in a 'positive and constructive atmosphere.' Our hope as TABDC is that the talks will bolster peace efforts for the Caucasus region and lead to establishing diplomatic, neighborly relations and reopening of the border to encourage trade and free flow of goods and services," he explained.

The second meeting of envoys with Turkish Ambassador Serdar Kılıç and Deputy Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Ruben Rubinyan is set for Feb. 24 in Vienna.

Relations between Armenia and Turkey have historically been complicated. Turkey’s position on the events of 1915 is that Armenians lost their lives in eastern Anatolia after some sided with the invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. The subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties, with massacres by militaries and militia groups from both sides increasing the death toll.

Turkey objects to the presentation of the incidents as "genocide" but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties.

Diaspora

"Despite some different views, the majority of the diaspora is in consensus to support the economic development of the Armenian people through economic relations and regional integration with the neighboring countries, Turkey and Azerbaijan," Soyak said, referring to the West, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and South America.

"Armenia is located in the center of energy, telecommunication and transportation crossroads between Asia, Central Asia (the Caspian basin) and the EU. All the interested parties are after those crossroad advantages," he said.

The TABDC, co-established on May 3, 1997, in Istanbul and Yerevan, is the first and only official link between the public and private sectors in both countries' communities.

'Turkey-Armenia talks normalization rather than reconciliation'

Recent engagement between Ankara and Yerevan to thaw their decadeslong frozen ties should be viewed as normalization rather than reconciliation,...

www.dailysabah.com

 

[Oublious]

IF they are smart they should stop with that stupid armenian genocide stories and look forward, they will win more then that shitty lobby in America making billions of dollar.

 

[EAGLE777]

What exactly has armenia to offer for Turkey?

 

[Abu Shaleh Rumi]

What exactly has armenia to offer for Turkey?

Export market for Turkish producers...

 

[silverox]

IF they are smart they should stop with that stupid armenian genocide stories and look forward, they will win more then that shitty lobby in America making billions of dollar.

Is the first real race extinction in the 20th century not Turkey's race extinction of Armenian?
The Armenian ethnic extinction of Turkey has not been punished, and only a few massacre commander are assassinated by Armenians.
Hitler once said, no one remembers the blood of the Armenia,
This encourages Hitler's formation of genocide policies of Jews.
after WW2,Turkey evaded the trial of the International Tribunal because of the important strategic location in the cold war
This is the biggest unfairness of the world of US hegemonic rule.
As long as you support the United States, you can do all evil things.
The reason is that the United States expansion is also based on the genocide of the American Indians.

 

[Dai Toruko]

Is the first real race extinction in the 20th century not Turkey's race extinction of Armenian?
The Armenian ethnic extinction of Turkey has not been punished, and only a few massacre commander are assassinated by Armenians.
Hitler once said, no one remembers the blood of the Armenia,
This encourages Hitler's formation of genocide policies of Jews.
after WW2,Turkey evaded the trial of the International Tribunal because of the important strategic location in the cold war
This is the biggest unfairness of the world of US hegemonic rule.
As long as you support the United States, you can do all evil things.
The reason is that the United States expansion is also based on the genocide of the American Indians.

Besides not being a historian, Hitler was not an expert on the “Arm. (Armenian) question” either. For years, he was not much concerned about foreign affairs. His greatest and primary concern was probably to keep his absolute control over the Nazi party and the German state. Empowering the military and economic expansion were the other important matters of his agenda. Meanwhile, the alleged statement on Arm., claimed to have been made by Hitler before Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, is indeed just another Arm. forgery.

The story behind this Arm. forgery is that after the Nuremberg tribunals began, an article titled, “The Way to War of Nazi Germany”, was published in the London Times on Nov. 24, 1945. But the article was an anonymous publication, meaning that no writer or correspondent was cited as the author of it. The document, which contained the alleged statement was submitted to Nuremberg court records and registered as a line item “L-3”. But this item was later removed from the court records in accordance with the rule number 10, meaning that it was either not original or considered untrustworthy.

Here is the original documentation on the rejection of the line item “L-3”:

The document in question (L-3) was typed on a plain paper with a poor German. Even the letter “ß” was typed as the “ss”, meaning that the typewriter used was not convenient for German language. The original version of the document can be viewed here.

Carlos Potter was a professional translator. He discovered the original document in the German archives and later stated that the document did not seem to be written by someone who had advanced proficiency in German language. Another point was that the paper used had average quality. The document itself also contained exaggerated and absurd statements such as, “Hermann Göring dancing on the dinner table in front of Hitler and other German generals while he was drunk”, which makes the authenticity of this controversial document even more questionable.

 

[EAGLE777]

Is the first real race extinction in the 20th century not Turkey's race extinction of Armenian?
The Armenian ethnic extinction of Turkey has not been punished, and only a few massacre commander are assassinated by Armenians.
Hitler once said, no one remembers the blood of the Armenia,
This encourages Hitler's formation of genocide policies of Jews.
after WW2,Turkey evaded the trial of the International Tribunal because of the important strategic location in the cold war
This is the biggest unfairness of the world of US hegemonic rule.
As long as you support the United States, you can do all evil things.
The reason is that the United States expansion is also based on the genocide of the American Indians.

Hitler never made that statement it is made up by armenian lobby.

 

[Paul2]

What exactly has armenia to offer for Turkey?

The road

Do you think they did the Karabag thing 30 years ago without Moscow? No

It's the same thing they did in Abkazia, Transnistria, Tajikistan, etc

 

[rmi5]

IF they are smart they should stop with that stupid armenian genocide stories and look forward, they will win more then that shitty lobby in America making billions of dollar.

They're not gonna give it up, as it's a source of collecting donations and international support for them, unless Turkey agrees to pay them some money every year, so that they stop talking about it, but Turkey won't do it.
BTW, too much history is involved, Armenians betrayal to Ottomans/Qajars multiple times, then WWI events, then three decades of Karabakh wars, so on. Although, normalization doesn't mean becoming best buddies, yet the ship of any meaningful progress in the relations are sailed a long time ago, quite impossible now to change the course.

 

[Foinikas]

What exactly has armenia to offer for Turkey?

Only Pashinyan's government wants to negotiate with Turkey. But you're right Armenia has nothing to offer to Turkey.