Between recognition and denial – the genocide question and Turkish-Armenian relations

Transconflict.com has published an article by Dr. Ahmed Magdy Al-Soukkary, an Egyptian academic lecturer in International Negotiations at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science (FEPS), CairoUniversity, in which the author analyzes the Armenian Genocide question and the Turkish-Armenian relations.

The Turkish-Armenian reconciliation process is now almost completely stalled, with Turkey continuing to vehemently oppose the Armenian-inspired international campaign to secure recognition of the Armenian genocide, the article reads.

“With the one-hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide taking place in 2015, some observers think it could provide a major breakthrough in genocide recognition and Armenian-Turkish dialogue. Others, however, insist that Turkey won’t recognize genocide, arguing that the killings were in self-defense against people who were disloyal to the Ottoman Empire during World War One. Turkey’s continued denial has created conditions which, particularly in the view of many Armenians, necessitates the continuation of the search for international reaffirmation until acknowledgement is universal and irreversible. In the meantime, the genocide issue continues to impact the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia,” the article reads.

According to the author, the Genocide issue and closed borders have played a big role in directing the course of Turkey-EU relations. He reminds that in 2005, the European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution establishing Turkey’s recognition of the Armenian genocide as a requirement for membership.

“Turkey, it should take concrete steps in normalizing its bilateral relations with Armenia, on the one hand, and trying to reach a political compromise to the intractable genocide issue, on the other,” the article reads.