“Hopeful Signs for Turkey and Armenia”

While the Armenian are gathering this week end to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, they discuss the future of the Turkish-Armenian relationships and the conditions of a possible reconciliation.
Since 90 years ago, the Turkish-Armenian relations have been featured by enmity and distrust. Turkey continues to reject the word ‘genocide’ to identify the 1915 events and would rather insist on the epoch war context and assert that the deportation of Armenians was motivated by security matters. In 2001, a heroic group of Turkish and Armenians decided to get together in the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission. The purpose was not to replace the official diplomacy but highlight the condition out of which the conflicts emerged with the aim of resolving them. However, the shadow of the genocide was looming up above all their works. The Turkish and Armenians of that commission decided then to request the opinion of the International Center for Transitional Justice. This Center declared, to the Turkish satisfaction, that as those events occurred before the legal definition of genocide, Ankara would not have to pay financial or territorial compensations, but the Center reasserted the genocide intentions of the Ottoman Empire - a statement that pleased the Armenians.
This opinion satisfies everyone and should be used by the governments to constitute the basis for a reconciliation. Then, an effort should be made to develop trade and open the border. The Bush administration should lend a hand to do this.