The role of the diaspora on Ankara-Yerevan rapprochement

Due to growing unease in Azerbaijan, Turkey had to declare that the road map would enter into force Äž open the border and establish diplomatic ties Äž only after Baku and Yerevan agree on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Recent statements from Baku and Yerevan indicate that the parties are getting closer to an interim agreement in months, if not weeks. The issue will also be on the agenda of U.S. President Barack Obama who will pay an important visit to Moscow this week. Such an agreement will not only constitute a major step for stabilizing the entire region but also a relief for Turkey to save itself from the pressure of Baku. Â

It is obvious that Turkey will even not lift a finger before an agreement is reached between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But is it a correct stance? Wouldn’t Turkey use this time to work to prepare a more suitable environment, inside and outside the country, for the normalization of ties?

There is a lot to do with his regard. At home, in fact, the government seems more ready as it is about to launch special television and radio channels that will broadcast in Armenian under the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, or TRT. Distributing free textbooks to the minority schools is another positive step taken in this regard.

Abroad, however, there are important challenges that Turkey has to deal, especially when considered that the Armenian diaspora Äž especially in France and the United States, where the diaspora is most powerful Äž has not yet been convinced for the historic deal.

Some French officials and experts I had the opportunity to talk to during a visit to France mid June said that the people of Armenia were in fact afraid that the diaspora could block the rapprochement process between Turkey and Armenia.

"To keep the diaspora out of the process is a demand we hear quite often in Yerevan," an expert stated. "Turkey and France could co-operate to eliminate this risk in France. Because there is a big interest for France to deal with this issue. They would be supporting the process."

It would be considered as a legitimate and realistic concern but do all members of the diaspora think the same way? "The most vocal Armenian diaspora is anti-Turkey, anti-rapprochement and super-extremist on the genocide. But we don’t know what the rest is thinking about the process. Therefore we can’t really say what French Armenians do think about it," said DorotheŽ Schmid, head of the Turkish Studies Program at French Institute of the International Relations.

That indicates that instead of trying totally keeping the diaspora out of the process, through dialogue with the moderate groups, they could be taken within the rapprochement. Of course, Turkey cannot do it alone; in France it needs the support of French government and in the United States of both the administration and the influential top ranking figures, like former politicians, diplomats. In France, it won’t be an easy job. France recognized the alleged genocide in 2000 and tried hard to punish its denial, which still effects bilateral ties with Turkey. That’s why contributing to Ankara-Yerevan process in a concrete way could also be in the benefit of France. It’s not to our information whether there is a sort of initiative taken by Turkish Embassy in France, though I have heard that some international non-governmental organizations and think tanks applied to the embassy for offering joint projects to this end. Some of them already submitted projects papers detailing ways to help the reconciliation of the peoples of Turkey and Armenia.

My observation is that the embassy should be much more open and receptive to all different groups of the French society. I don’t say merely just because a request of mine for a meeting at the embassy was refused but a number of people who are closely watching Turkey have the similar complaints.

Our embassy would have not much difference than the North Korean Embassy in Paris if it does not change this behind-closed-doors course.