"Turkey and Armenia to Establish Diplomatic Ties"

I promise to not talk too much about politics, but this morning, I read a slew of articles including the NY Times' "Turkey and Armenia to Establish Diplomatic Ties." BBC, WSJ, Washington Post and the AP and Reuters all have similar pieces.

This photo is courtesy of Al Jazeera English. The organization reported thoroughly on the Armenia/Turkey news today. I was interested in reading their spin. Most of the coverage is pretty accurate.

Turkey and Armenia in April agreed on a roadmap to normalization of relations and the past four months there has been no movement. Leading many to argue that Turkey did not prove itself an honest broker, instead the Turkey government hoped to derail President Obama's pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide, with convincing diplomatic overtures. Now with the soccer match between Turkey and Armenia (in October) fast approaching, there seems to be some movement, but all remains to be seen.

Out of my time in Washington, I came to believe that Turkey should lift its illegal blockade on Armenia. Firstly, it's important for confidence building measures amongst the people - Armenians and Turkish people should speak and put a face behind the people. From an economic perspective, free market theory would point that it would help both countries if free trade were to become the norm.

I can't accurately report on the Armenian reaction. Mostly, folks in my office are not moved either way by the news. I don't think they trust the Turkish government. There is a sense also that Armenians may not yet be ready psychologically for the border to open. Armenians are an old people with an ancient language, but modern Armenian is not yet twenty years old. It has 3 million people, Turkey has 40 million people. I might be not be right, but it seems that some fear that Armenia may be swallowed up by Turkey. Folks in undeveloped eastern Turkey may pour into Armenia looking for jobs and ultimately Turkish goods will start to fill shops.

Symbolically, Mount Ararat, where Noah famously landed in the Bible, lies in modern day Turkey, but looms large over Yerevan. It's a constant reminder of Western Armenia and the land and lives lost in the first quarter of the twentieth century.

I will write more on the issue in the coming weeks, but from a purely practical standpoint, stripped of emotion, it is crazy that one has to go through Georgia to get to Turkey from Armenia -- the border should be opened. As for the unresolved historical issue such as Turkish recognition of the Genocide, this is not a precondition for the opening of the border, but it is something very real in the minds of Armenians living here in Yerevan, many of whom are decendents of genocide survivors.

Ok enough of the heavy.