Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Yerevan.
In 1982, I was the Armenian face in the crowded audience who had come to hear Turkish Ambassador Sukru Elekdag at the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles. I was young, very pregnant, and I suppose non-threatening looking.
He didn’t call on any of my young male friends also there at the luncheon, with hands raised. He called on me. And his face-dropped, as I started speaking. “Mr. Ambassador, when will your government acknowledge the crimes of the Ottoman Empire against Armenians?” was my question, more or less.
The moderator paraphrased my question and therein lies the reason for why we need a Republic of Armenia. “The young lady claims,” he said, and the ambassador continued to sing what in those days was a much less sophisticated song of denial.
In the eyes of the world, I was a lone person, claiming something – something real or preposterous, didn’t matter. No legitimacy. No need to sit down and settle accounts with me.
That is the way of the world. States talk to states.
This last week, Turkey’s foreign minister visited Armenia. No part of that sentence could have been uttered in 1982. But Minister Ahmet Davutoglu came because if you want to resolve relations not just between Turkey and Armenia – as if that wasn’t hard enough — but between Armenians and Turks, too, you have to talk to the other side.
Armenia is a side. It’s a state that has a position and is – or ought to be – prepared to defend it and advocate it and promote it and achieve it. It’s a state that has the moral high ground on many issues – not just genocide recognition, but also the victim of a closed border. For once in history, our moral position may contribute to political gains. Armenia is an internationally recognized and respected and accepted interlocutor. A young lady, or several million of them, are not.
That is the way of the world. States talk to states – or at least they do if they’re smart. We need the Republic of Armenia, and we need it to be smart.
