In a move that deserves praise and support, Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan moved forward again on Friday to normalize relations with Turkey. Sarksyan submitted to the Armenian Parliament two protocols which spring from the deal he signed with Turkish President Abdullah Gul last October; the two protocols would open bilateral diplomatic relations and open the countries’ shared border.
Sarksyan will need all the help he can get for this initiative. He is going against the prevailing tide in his own country and among much of the Armenian diaspora, as we have seen demonstrated here. In a bow to this resistance, Sarksyan’s government added codicils to the accords which should make it easier for Yerevan to walk away from the deal if Turkey dawdles.
This surprising and welcome break from the past should be seen only through the perspective of the Armenian genocide; we do not for a moment deny its horrors, but the massacre has become a mascot for many other phenomena plaguing Armenia, a cudgel that can be readily brandished to cast blame or distract attention from a spectrum of problems: high unemployment, a stagnant economy and a lack of foreign investment.
Nevertheless, the Armenian president has taken a bold and necessary step. It is time to move forward; instead of living in the past and playing the game of blame and victimhood, this region needs understanding and reconciliation.
For its part, Armenia has a well of untapped potential, whether as a passageway for a natural-gas pipeline or in its historically talented populace – Armenians can boast a wealth of chess champions, world-class musicians and accomplished engineers. And yet the country lacks stability; it still has a smoldering conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Certainly, Turkey also stands to benefit from the agreement; yes, we could also say the Turks are trudging into this deal only to complete part of their homework for their largely receding hopes for European Union membership.
That, however, is a story for another day. The Turkish-Armenian reconciliation should be acknowledged as an example of the way forward, of a better alternative to the seething tensions that have bedeviled this region for almost all of living memory. We need more leaders willing to stick their necks out to end tensions and conflicts. Amid the vortex of myriad wars and major shifts in geopolitics and the world economy, the recipe for a nation’s success in recent decades remains valid: stop making war and get to work.
Sarksyan’s brave move might not succeed – the deal still has to be approved by both countries’ legislatures – but no matter how this episode ends, the president deserves recognition for helping escape the cell of the past and moving toward peace and reconciliation.
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