FOOTBALL FOR PEACE? By VARTAN OSKANIAN
Khaleej Times
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Sept 9 2008
United Arab Emirates
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s recent invitation to Turkish
President Abdullah Gul to visit Yerevan to watch a football match
together was historic. Given the two countries’ long-strained
relations, this visit would have been remarkable at any time.
But coming as it does only one month after the alarming
Russian-Georgian confrontation, it may offer real hope that tensions
in the volatile Caucasus region can be eased.
Of course, ancient and difficult issues divide Armenia and Turkey. But
now is the moment for both countries to put the past aside in order
to address their common security concerns. In the new context set
by the war in Georgia, the urgency of Turkey becoming a real bridge
between the nations of the Caucasus is not lost on anyone.
This expectation is an inevitable consequence of Turkey’s geography
and history.
Situated figuratively between modernity and tradition, secularism and
Islam, and democracy and tyranny, Turkey also is an actual physical
bridge between East and West. For the peoples of the Caucasus,
Turkey marks our path to Europe. It is a Nato member, bordering the
three Caucasus republics that have Nato Individual Partnership Action
Programmes. It aspires to join the European Union, and would bring
the EU to our three borders, even as we, too, aspire to join one day.
Indeed, Turkey has never missed an opportunity to present itself as a
regional broker. Immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union,
Turkey proposed the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. This year, as
the American-led effort to mediate a Middle East peace settlement
began to falter, Turkey took up the job of mediator in both the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the conflict between Syria and
Israel. Now, in the immediate wake of the Russia-Georgia crisis,
Turkey’s leaders have stepped forward once again to take a leadership
role in the Caucasus.
The world must fervently hope that the Turkish proposal for a Caucasus
Stability and Cooperation Platform is more serious and sustained
than previous similar efforts. But, in order to succeed, Turkey must
firmly pursue a pledge from all the region’s players to repudiate the
use of force in settling their disputes. If this pledge is adopted
and respected, conflicts in the region will be viewed in a wholly
different, more tolerant context, marking a historic breakthrough
to peace.
In fact, why not take the idea of such a pact one step further? We
in this region can, and I believe should, call for a non-aligned
Caucasus, free of security blocs and adversarial alliances. After
all, security alliances and guarantees only create dividing lines,
with their attendant security challenges.
Our countries and peoples have, throughout history, lived under a
common umbrella for far longer than we have been divided.
Today, we share a common vision of European integration, and it is in
this broader context that our conflicts should be resolved. French
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s
visits to Georgia and Russia proved that there is no substitute for
Europe insofar as the Caucasus is concerned. Only Europe can play
the role of honest broker in the region’s atmosphere of suspicion
and intolerance.
But, at the end of the day, we ourselves must be willing to work
towards a region of peace and cooperation. The Caucasus is too small
a space for closed borders and explosive conflicts. Although some of
those tensions appear purely bilateral, the Georgian-Russian conflict
demonstrates that there is no such thing anymore in this globalised
world, and certainly not in this interconnected region.
In fact, real peace in the Caucasus requires two key strategic
transformations. One is a lesson from history: Russia’s strategic
interests here cannot be ignored. To believe and behave otherwise would
lead to regional chaos. The other lesson is that Turkey and Armenia
cannot remain adversaries forever. There must be normalisation in
our relations in order for the Caucasus to coalesce into a functional
region.
Ironically, both Russia and the United States recognise that this
is in their interest. The Russians view normal relations between
Turkey and Armenia as a way to minimise Georgia’s strategic role in
the region. The US views an opening to Turkey as a way to decrease
Armenia’s real and imagined reliance on Russia.
Beyond the emotional impact of President Gul’s visit to Yerevan,
real improvement in Turkish-Armenian relations requires opening the
two countries’ closed border – the last in Europe. Or, for a start,
the existing railroad link between the two countries could be made
operational. If this does not happen within the coming weeks and
months, then Turkey will have demonstrated that all this was just
a show.
President Gul’s visit does mark a watershed – either as a failure to
make history, or as the beginning of a new era.
Vartan Oskanian, Armenia’s Foreign Minister from 1998 until April
2008, is the founder of the Yerevan-based Civilitas Foundation. This
article is distributed by Project Syndicate
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
