from historical facts to geo-political realities: relation between turkey and armenia ( 1915 – 2010)

armenias geopolitics and its historical experience have had a determining impact on the character of its foreign policy .present-day armenia is a small, landlocked country with _11,620 square miles area armenias landlocked nature makes it dependent on the benevolence of its neighbors for access to the outside world a fact that gives it a sense of isolation and vulnerability. as it was indicated, the root of armenian’s foreign policy is informants from its structural & internal factors, and also depends on its geopolitical situation. the most important factors which informants the foreign policy of this country can be illustrated as follow: 1) geopolitical factors: • armenia is a small country and has special structural limitations. • armenia is a landlocked country. • from ethnic point of view, armenian is considered among a minority region. • from religious point of view armenians are christians and in muslim countries they feel isolate. • from geopolitical point of view, armenia is considered to be a sensitive country which is located on “the route of energy transit”. due to the above factors the country feels isolate, therefore, in order to get rid of these problems, this country is trying to get enough benefit from its neighboring countries’ open waters. 2) historical experience : one of the most important factor which informants the foreign policy of armenia is the "armenia’s genocide issue", which influenced its foreign policy, as a result of which, this country’s relationship with its great neighbor e.g. turkey remain limited. due to its historical and ethnical characteristics in the region, armenia is a specific country. therefore, it is of high importance to study all those significant factors which could affect its foreign policy. as this country is located on the "route of energy transit" therefore, from strategic point of view it is considered as an important political partner. there are many factors which could affect armenia’s foreign policy, by studying of which the country could boost its relations with iran. one of the historical experiences of this country is the deep understanding of "armenia’s genocide issue", which affected its foreign policy due to which; armenia is to be considered as a pilot for iranian’s foreign policy. armenia relation great neighbor "turkey" is not good, several factors, however prevented improvement in turkish –armenian relations .first turkeys insistence, and armenias refusal to abandon the issue of the 1915"armenian genocide tow, turkeys ambitions to become the dominant regional player in the transcaucasia and central asia, which led it to side completely with azerbaijan in its conflict with armenia obstacles to normalization of relation 1. nagorno-karabakh conflict nagorno-karabakh is a region in the west of azerbaijan, where armenians constitute the majority.12 in the 1980’s, the efforts of the armenians living in this region to unite with armenia intensified, and consequently armed conflict broke out between armenia and azerbaijan. although this skirmish ended with the ceasefire in 1994, armenia still occupies twenty percent13 of azerbaijan’s territories in spite of decisions made by international law and the united nations general assembly. this conflict between armenia and azerbaijan adversely influenced turkey-armenia relations and eventually led to the closure of the common border between the two countries. in addition to the border problem, turkey-armenia relations get worsened when the latter stationed a large number of troops on the border of nakhchivan. in august 1993, in retaliation to this incident and in an attempt to intimidate the armenian troops near the nakhchivan border, turkish tanks ventured very near the armenian town of gyumri, which is close to the border. this action led to an intensification of tensions between the two countries. as stated before, the declaration made by a russian general who was in armenia at the time, asserting that world war iii could break out if turkish tanks passed into armenian territories, is one indicator of how febrile the tensions had been on the border. 2. the question of border recognition another obstacle to the normalization of turkey-armenia relations is that, in spite of the principles regarding the immutability of borders that armenia acknowledged within the framework of osce, this country does not want to make a clear commitment by declaring the recognition the 1921 treaties of kars and gyumri (the treaty of alexandropol), which define the border between the two countries. mainly due to domestic political reasons and the fears of a nationalist reaction, the armenian party does not want to seem as if it acknowledges these treaties that define the current turkish armenian border. armenia argues that there is no need for such a declaration since both countries has never rejected the aforementioned treaties. on the other hand, it is a well-known fact that, in 1991, the armenian parliament adopted a resolution stating that it refuses the validity of the treaties of kars and gyumri. 3. genocide allegations another problem that brings the turkey-armenia relations to a deadlock is the genocide allegations. one of the primary goals of armenian foreign policy is the recognition of the genocide in the international arena, and that disturbs turkey greatly. on the other hand, one should remember that the armenian diaspora puts forth a great effort in order to push for the adoption of genocide allegations in third-party countries’ parliaments in an attempt to give this issue an international character. given that armenia has very limited political and economic power in the international arena; it is a clear fact that the international extensions of the local diaspora in various countries and the armenian diaspora in the usa are quite influential. 4. the question of closed border as it is stated in the first part of this study, opening the border and establishing diplomatic relations have now turned into matters of domestic politics for both countries. before making positive advances towards the other side, the governments of both countries formulate policies by considering the potential reactions of the domestic opposition. therefore, no visible improvement has been achieved in the past seventeen years. this section will briefly look into the issue of the closed border, and the fourth section will discuss in detail the probable effects of opening the border on armenia, turkey and the caucasus region and how this may reflect upon turkey’s relations with the eu. attempts to find a solution 1. attempts made by civil society a. turkish-armenian reconciliation commission (tarc) b. turkish-armenian business development council (tabdc) and other ngo attempts c. local attempts 2. diplomatic attempts