Stosunki turecko-ormiańskie w świetle opinii tureckiej

Turkey, as a state operating in accordance with the well-known saying by its first President, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Evde sulh cihanda sulh, and aspiring to good relations with all its neighbours, started negotiations on establishing diplomatic relations with Armenians in 2009, using Switzerland as a mediator. Armenia’s increasing economic and financial dependency on Russia contributes to the growing poverty in widening social circles in the country, which are to a certain extent interested in opening the border with Turkey. Cross-border trading could improve the material situation of many Armenians. Turkey, on the other hand, aspires – although not unanimously – to join the European Union, who is pressuring it to raise the standards of, among other things, democratic behaviour towards its ethnic minorities; the current Turkish government is therefore very interested in softening and regulating its relations also with Armenia (who wants to strengthen its relations with Europe), which would be very well received by the West and to a certain extent move forward the difficult process of integrating Turkey with the EU. Therefore in both countries, Armenia and Turkey, the trends towards establishing diplomatic relations and open the borders have been growing recently. This was supported by the pressure from the USA, as the American diplomacy was making efforts to bring both feuding countries to start negotiating.