Intercultural dialogue project between the civil societies of Turkey, Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora.

Turkey-Azerbaijan: “One Nation, Two States”?

▻http://repairfuture.net/index.php/en/identity-standpoint-of-turkey/turkey-azerbaijan-one-nation-two-states

In this interview, SciencePo CERI researcher Bayram Balci analyzes international relations between Azerbaijan and its Turkish and Russian neighbors. He sets out to explain why Turkey and Azerbaijan maintain such a “special relationship,” because of their history but also of their economic, cultural, geographic and political ties. Besides, Balci analyzes Azerbaijan’s relations with its powerful neighbor Russia, arguing that one should not make too much of their recent rapprochement. Finally, he deplores a marginalization of Armenia as it is left out of new energetic deal currently being made in the region.

REPAIR: Why are Turkey and Azerbaijan so close?

Bayram Balci: For Turkey, Azerbaijan is not a country like any other and cannot be compared to its other neighbors. There is a definite proximity in their identities since both countries belong in the same Turkic identity zone, or at least hold roughly the same views on Turkishness, which is not the case for other Turkish-speaking countries of the former USSR. Even if there are some differences between Turkish identity in Anatolia and Turkic identity in Azerbaijan, that proximity is recognized and asserted on both sides. Secondly, in the last twenty years, Turkey has developed a national Turkist and even pan-Turkist rhetoric which Azerbaijan relates to most strongly. Thirdly, both nations are geographically close, which is not really the case of other Turkish-speaking countries such as Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan. During the Ottoman Empire, a small part of the country even found itself under Ottoman rule for a short period, long enough though to create strong bonds, something that did not happen with other Turkish-speaking Republics which were never part of the Ottoman sphere. Fourthly, in order to better grasp relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan, one should note that upon the advent of the Kemalist Republic, many Azeri intellectuals in the Russian Empire who had been active in the Muslim reformist movement moved to Turkey to help with the foundation of the new Republic. All this contributed to creating special ties between the two countries. And finally, since the breakup of the Soviet Union into independent nations, the fact that these two countries now have the same “enemy”, namely Armenia, has brought them somewhat closer.

#azerbaïdjan #turquie #arménie #identité

Armenian Genocide : Act in view of a future and not only of a past.

▻http://repairfuture.net/index.php/en/armenian-genocide-recognition-and-reparations-other-standpoint/armenian-genocide-act-in-view-of-a-future-and-not-only-of-a-past

Je n’ai pas d’avis particulier sur ce texte et son approche, j’ai juste regardé très rapidement et je référence pour les archives. Mais si quelqu’un veut commenter, welcome.

In this article, Michel Wievorka reviews the process of the « Armenian awakening » and its changing forms through recent times, which emerged far from Turkey then made its way within the Turkish society, in particular under the impetus of journalist Hrant Dink, assassinated in 2007. Recalling the reasons for the Turkish State to negate the Armenian genocide, the author discusses the question of land and material reparations while underlying the importance of the Armenians’ Christianity at a time when other Christian populations are threatened or brutally attacked. Finally, Wievorka reflects on the future of Armenians once recognition of the genocide by Turkey has happened. He wonders in particular whether they will be able to not just remember the past but also to “project themselves into the future as a human group”.

A hundred years ago, Armenian communities sustained mass murdering assaults which must be called by their name: genocide. Since then, descendants of survivors, who now form a numerous Diaspora across several Middle East countries as well as in Russia, the United States, France, Canada, Argentina, etc., are waiting for the Turkish State to officially recognize that crime.

The Karabakh conflict in the Armenian policy of Turkey

▻http://repairfuture.net/index.php/en/genocide-standpoint-of-armenia/the-karabakh-conflict-in-the-armenian-policy-of-turkey

It seemed like the ideological optimism caused by the end of the Cold War in the system of the international relations will also irreversibly spur the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations, and the objective and subjective factors calling to life a new possibility and working in favour of reconciliation of antagonistic past will turn out to be more powerful than the ones who throw obstacles in the way.

However, the ideological optimism was the first to bedim quickly in the Caucasus, where, ethno-territorial conflicts open for the involvement of third parties, erupted, thus, shifting the perceptions of international relations into the field of realism and pessimism.

#arménie #tuquie #azerbaidjan #haut_karabakh

L’identité arménienne en diaspora : entre modernité et préservation

▻http://repairfuture.net/index.php/fr/l-identite-point-de-vue-de-la-diaspora-armenienne/l-identite-armenienne-en-diaspora-entre-modernite-et-preservation

http://repairfuture.net/images/dossiers/identite/LaurenceRitterPhotoArticle2.jpg

Laurence Ritter, sociologue française dont la thèse de doctorat portait sur « les recompositions de l’identité arménienne Diaspora/Arménie, de la victime au sujet », explique les particularités de la diaspora arménienne formées après le génocide de 1915. Selon elle, loin d’être monolithique, celle ci revêt différents visages selon son pays d’implantation. Ainsi, il ne faudrait pas parler d’une diaspora, mais bien de plusieurs diasporas. L’indépendance de l’Arménie et la circulation de l’information grâce au numérique a profondément bouleversé le fonctionnement de la diaspora traditionnelle. Laurence Ritter analyse les différents défis dont la diaspora doit faire face pour entrer dans la modernité.

#arménie #arméniens
Les Arméniens seraient environ huit à dix millions à travers le monde, dont peut être trois millions en République d’Arménie, selon les statistiques officielles, lesquelles ne tiennent cependant pas forcément compte du phénomène d’hémorragie migratoire qui n’a pas cessé depuis l’indépendance de cette ancienne république soviétique en 1991. On peut d’ores et déjà, en raison de l’importance de cette migration, à la fois politique et économique, parler d’une diaspora dans la diaspora : aux États Unis comme en Europe, elle se développe en parallèle de la diaspora issue du génocide, mais ne se retrouve pas forcément dans les mêmes associations qui la structurent ni dans les même quartiers marqués par la présence arménienne depuis déjà presque un siècle. En Russie, autour des villes d’Armavir et de Krasnodar, mais surtout à Moscou, les Arméniens d’Arménie vont avant tout chercher du travail et des conditions de vie meilleures dans un pays qu’ils connaissent bien.