“We know a lot about the culture of Armenia. Many mosques were built by Sinân but he converted to Islam for practical reasons. We are very proud of Turkish classical music, but the best composers in the Ottoman period were Armenians. There are also many similarities in the food, too. I can tell a lot about the culture of Armenia that are part of the Turkish culture today,” such comparisons were made by Turkish analyst Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı during the discussion of “Armenian-Turkish relations after the centenary of the Genocide. Meaning, memory and politics” held on September 8. The discussion was organized by the “Center for Globalization and Regional Cooperation” and the Armenian office of Friedrich Ebert Fund.
The speaker considers the “1915 events” as the main obstacle in Turkish-Armenian relations, as well as the Turkey-Azerbaijan relations in the prism of the NKR issue. By and large, the point that we do not come to an agreement on these issues, according to the Turkish analyst, is that we do not know each other. “Should we know, maybe over the time, we would come to an agreement also on these issues.” Speaking of the situation in Turkey, the speaker said that in the last decade, the elections in Turkey had become too predictable. “Several parties were competing, but Erdoğan is the winner. We were used to it. But these elections were important not because who will govern, but what regime will govern.”
You know that Erdoğan wants to switch Turkey to a presidential system. Turkish expert is surprised that the United States is surprised about what wrong it is. “If Turkey becomes presidential, it will become more similar to Russia system than the American one, where there are balancing and counterbalancing,” said he, adding that Erdoğan went for elections not only to take the first place but also to change the Constitution. But his ruled party failed to receive 367 seats to be able to amend the Constitution, although, in contrary to the law, Erdoğan urged the voters to give 400 seats to his party. “I am in favor of coalition governments and it would be a good idea for Turkey. But Erdoğan pursued another goal: Erdoğan needed a sole governance to protect his absolute power, his friends and family members from the courts. That was the main reason for the failure of the formation of a coalition government,” he said.
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Turkey is prepared to new or early elections, and Erdoğan is seeking for the majority in the event when he failed three months ago. Erdoğan, according to the Turkish expert, hopes that after the recent developments, after the attack of the Islamic state, the Turkish people will vote for stability. “It is impossible to prove, but there are grounds to think that the Turkish government has allowed negligence and has not promptly prevented the attack of the Islamic state against the Kurds,” said the analyst doubted, adding that because of new violence, all Kurds will vote in favor of the Kurdish political party. Also, the statements about the corruption of Erdoğan’s relatives arouse suspicions among the public and the government has not allowed the courts to call them for interrogation. Also, the country’s poor economic situation from 2007 to the present day is 3.5% growth in average and now Turkey’s economy is in worse shape than it was in June.
Given these circumstances, the analyst opines that in November, Erdoğan’s government will again fail collecting a majority and will have to go for a coalition government. The coalition, according to the speaker, will determine Turkey’s future course. He does not rule out that in the presence of predominance of the leftism, a positive platform will be created for the settlement of the Armenian-Turkish relations. “Turkey wants to have zero problems with the neighbors, as a result, it has no relations with any neighbor: Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Israel, and Lebanon has complaints, not to speak about Armenia, Georgia is also discontent with Abkhazia and Ossetia, no former relations with Iran and Turkey is very lonely in the event when the ecosystem is collapsing around us,” said the Turkish analyst, adding that Turkey needs a “positive political agenda” and it would be the easiest for Armenia. “Next time, when there will be negotiations, we must detach the Armenian-Turkish relations from the 1915 events and the relations with Azerbaijan. I know what a painful subject it is for you, it would not be fair to say, leave it for the future… Turkey has closed the border for twenty years, but what it won in this, what Azerbaijan has won in this. I think, nothing,” said Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı. The speaker sees a ground of cooperation in the economic sphere and to be integrated to Europe together.
Chairman of the “Center for Globalization and Regional Cooperation”, Stepan Grigoryan, agrees that this separation should exist. “There should be a unilateral step. Turkey has to make a step and open the border. I understand that it is hard, it is difficult for Turkey, it is a multi-layered country, but there are interests that are above the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. A destabilization is going on, but we want Turkey to be a developed and strong country.” Stepan Grigoryan also noted that the recent developments in Turkey slowly-slowly break the stereotype affixed with Armenians that Turkey is doing everything rightly and pretty much well calculated.
Nelly GRIGORYAN
