After the change of power in Armenia in 1998, the recognition of the Armenian Genocide became an inseparable part of Armenia’s foreign politics. As a result, foreign countries started recognizing the Armenian Genocide one after another. However, to this day, Armenia and Turkey don’t have diplomatic relations and the Turkish-Armenian border remains closed.
Is Armenia’s adopted genocide recognition policy really effective and what does the average Armenian citizen lose or get out of that?
Ilias Gevorg Uyar, an Armenian lawyer born in Cilicia but based in Germany has done a tremendous amount of work dedicated to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and is currently in Armenia. He believes that Armenia is leading the right kind of politics and that citizens of Armenia wouldn’t get anything out of the authorities’ efforts to reestablish ties with Turkey, or open the border and the railway.
“A country doesn’t create its policy so that the other will value it. I don’t think that the closing of the border greatly affects Armenia,” says Ilias Gevorg Uyar.
He says that Turkish products make it to the Armenian markets even with the closing of the border and Turkish brands have their representations in Armenia. If the border opens, according to Uyar, the Armenian market will be overflowed with Turkish products and Armenian products won’t have the chance to compete.
“Opening or closing the Turkish-Armenian border will not have a positive effect on Armenian youth because most young people are thinking about traveling to Russia or the U.S. That’s the one thing on the minds of all the young people I have met.”
According to I. Gevorg Uyar, the two political issues on the minds of Armenians in the Diaspora are the Karabakh conflict, the most essential, and the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
“Both Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora are worried over these issues. If we leave these two issues aside, then what can really tie us and Turkey?” says Uyar.
He says that the Armenian Diaspora is a result of genocide and Armenians across the globe feel that the Armenian authorities tie the Diaspora and Armenia together by leading the foreign politics on that. At the same time, he says that Armenia and the Diaspora have to establish firm ties at other levels too, such as cultural. Uyar considers the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as the “base of essence” of the Diaspora, but he doesn’t think that there will come a day when Turkey will officially recognize.
So, what does the average Armenian citizen lose or get out of the foreign politics?
“We’re not dealing with the loss or benefit. It’s about essence. There has been genocide and Turkey has to confess. We can’t really say what will happen after recognition,” says Uyar.
According to him, the genocide issue is so essential that it’s tied to the individual.
“Not recognizing the Genocide is like having Turkey not recognize you as an Armenian. That says a lot about my national belonging because after all, they tried to eliminate us, but I’m still here as an Armenian.”
Uyar is in favor of the Turkey-Armenia dialogue, but believes that that will happen only after recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
“Robert Kocharyan declared that Armenia is not demanding any lands because that is not a prerequisite for establishing ties with Turkey and that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide has more of a moral/psychological meaning to it. Even after that Turkey still denies it,” says I. Gevorg Uyar.
The Armenian lawyer from Germany says that the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation committee would be welcomed if it was spontaneous. However, he says that the third side, in this case the U.S., was the one that ordered that and when you have a third side in politics, it means that that side is making decisions based on its interests. I. Gevorg Uyar draws his attention to the recent rumors, claiming that the U.S. wants to enlarge the OSCE Minsk Group by adding Germany and Turkey.
“Germany and Turkey are the two countries responsible for trying to eliminate Armenians from the region and they may just be included in the group. This is absurd. Does Germany really have the right to raise Armenia’s issues at the international level? Who gave Turkey and Germany the right to lead negotiations on that?” asks Uyur.