By Barçın Yinanç
As you drive from Yerevan to the Turkish border, which takes approximately 50 minutes, the stunning view of Mount Ararat becomes clearer.
It goes without saying that if Mount Ararat were a human being, its face would be looking toward Armenia while its back would be toward Turkey.
While it stands inside the Turkish border, it has a much bigger significance for Armenians, an issue the country’s prime minister has started to question.
Nikol Pashinian has been challenging a number of the long-standing Armenian theses, including efforts to secure the international recognition of claims of genocide.
The international recognition of Armenian genocide is not among the country’s foreign policy priorities, he told a group of Turkish journalists.
In a historic first, Pashinian met with the representatives of ten Turkish media organizations on March 11. I was among the group that spent nearly two hours with the Armenian prime minister.
‘HISTORY IS HISTORY, TODAY IS TODAY’
“Genocide is an undeniable truth for us Armenians,” he said, but questioned what benefit its recognition by third countries brings concretely to Armenia.
“What purpose would such a decision serve for our relations in our neighborhood? When there is recognition in Australia or New Zealand, this brings peace to our relations with these countries. Yet we need peace first and foremost with our neighbors,” said Pashinyan. “History is history, today is today,” he added.
Pashinian’s paradigm shift is crucial as it potentially eliminates obstacles to normalization with Turkey.
One of Turkey’s prerequisites to establish diplomatic relations was a change in the Armenian Constitution that makes a reference to the country’s Declaration of Independence.
“The Republic of Armenia supports the international recognition of genocide of Armenians of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey and the Western Armenia,” says Article 11 of the declaration. The term Western Armenia, which is part of “traditional Armenia” is perceived as a territorial claim by Turkey.
‘REAL ARMENIA’
Pashinian wants to focus on “real Armenia,” a term he started using, not “traditional Armenia.” Yet his groundbreaking vision is unknown to the Turkish public and has so far failed to get traction in Ankara.
In addition, the real obstacle to normalization with Ankara, which was the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, is also out of the way.
Yet normalisation efforts, which started with the appointment of special envoys in 2022 following the recapture of Karabakh by Azerbaijan, has stalled due to Baku’s pressure on Ankara.
The decision taken in 2022 to open the land border to third country nationals and those holding diplomatic passports is yet to be implemented.
The Armenian side of the land border is ready to open. Armenia has completed the infrastructure work on its side of the land crossing. As we toured the Margara crossing point, everything looked ready to function in a matter of a few days if not hours.
Pashinian did not appear frustrated by the lack of progress. The two countries are in constant dialogue, he said, adding there were even contacts between some ministers.
“Seven years ago I could not talk for seven minutes about our bilateral relations,” he said, adding that his meeting in New York with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan got most of the likes on Facebook compared to his other meetings. “This was not the case when first contacts were held between special envoys,” he said.
“Some say there is no progress. I don’t agree. On the contrary, I see political will on both sides. Certain psychological barriers have been eliminated. The normalization can be delayed for three months or a year, but in my view normalization is a matter of time,” he said.
LAST-MINUTE ANNOUNCEMENT: PEACE DEAL READY TO SIGN
While Pashinyan was critical of Azerbaijan’s attitude to the peace process with Armenia, he did not want to sound pessimistic about reaching a deal with Baku.
“I don’t agree with the rhetoric that peace is not visible on the horizon. Very important fundamentals of peace are there,” he said.
While he did not offer any clue that a final peace deal was about to be agreed with Baku, 48 hours following the interview, the foreign minister of Azerbaijan declared that the two sides had reached an agreement on all points of the peace deal.
At the time of the writing, not much is known about this latest development. Yet, some experts cautioned on possible caveats the two sides might still harbor, which could complicate or delay the signing of the deal.
In fact, a statement by the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan reiterated that the change in the Armenian Constitution remains a condition to sign any deal.
