The Last Closed Border of the Cold War: Turkey–Armenia

ABSTRACT

In the post-Soviet Caucasus, a number of borders remain blocked as a result of ethno-territorial conflicts that emerged in the early 1990s. Yet, there is one closed border that does not fit the pattern: the Turkish–Armenian border. This border has not been the site of any conflict in that period, and belongs to an entirely different geopolitical space: the border that previously separated the Soviet Union from Turkey, as well as independent Armenia from the Republic of Turkey. To understand the nature of the conflict that keeps the Turkish–Armenian border closed, therefore, one has to look for historic references that go beyond the Soviet legacy and bring in Ottoman history, and specifically the Genocide of Ottoman Armenians in 1915–1916. This analysis sheds new light on understanding the modern conflicts of the Caucasus, which have previously been studied mostly within the context of the Soviet experience.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Ani was added to the UNESCO’s XXXX.

2. On the Russo-Georgia war, see (Cheterian 2009a).

3. Cheterian (2009a, 249).

4. de Waal (2003), footnote 5, p. 306.

5. Croissant (1998, 13).

6. Croissant (1998, 19).

7. For an exception to this pattern, where past historic mass trauma is integrated in our understanding of the late Soviet/post-Soviet conflicts in the Caucasus, see Cheterian (2009b, 300–308).

8. For a definitive history of the Armenian Genocide, see Kévorkian (2006).

9. See chapter 2 in Vicken Cheterian, War and Peace in the Caucasus, op. cit., pages 37–85.

10. On Armenian Genocide denial, see chapters 9–12, Hovannisian (1998, 201–297). In the Soviet Union, the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide was prohibited by the authorities starting from 1926–1927, and was restarted only after the mass mobilization on the occasion of the 50th anniversary, in 1965.

11. I should add that the Armenian population of Smyrna (Izmir) were also exempt from deportation during the war, but they were largely massacred or escaped to Europe at the time of the arrival of Kemalist forces and the “Great Fire” that followed in September 1922.

12. The “Second Phase of the Genocide” was coined by Raymond Kévorkian to describe the massacre of largely women and children who had survived the Death Marches and were collected in the Syrian Desert.

13. On the Genocide of the Armenians, see Dadrian (1995); Kévorkian (2006); Suny (2015).

14. On the Turkish policies of confiscation of Armenian properties, see Baghdjian (2010); Üngör and Polatel (2011).

15. On the genocide of the Assyrians see Travis (2010), chapter 7 especially pp. 245–269; Yacoub (2016); on the case of Ottoman Greeks see Meichanetsidis (2015).

16. See chapter 12 in Cheterian (2015, 279–298).

17. Author’s observations, July 2013.

18. On the Armenian terrorist movements in the 1970s and 1980s, see Vicken Cheterian, Open Wounds, chapter 5, pp. 123–131.

19. Calling Kurds in a derogatory manner to be hidden “Armenians” continues. See (Tremblay, Al-Monitor, October 11, 2015).

20. For a study on the memory of Turkish political leaders and how they remembered the annihilation of the Armenians, see Göçek (2014).

21. The controversy concerning the death of Özal continues to this day, with rumors saying that he was killed by poisoning for his political choices. See: Bacchii (November 2, 2012).

22. This question, on how Turkish denialist narrative influenced Azerbaijani nationalism is a rich subject, and a question that deserves a separate study.

23. Cheterian, War and Peace in the Caucasus, pp. 122–123.

24. Manukian, Hayk Weekly, March 4, 1990, quoted in Hakobian, Hayer yev Turker, Baderazm, Bagh Baderazm, Tivanakidutyun, (Armenians and Turks, War, Cold War, and Diplomacy) Antilias 2012, pp. 268–269.

25. Cheterian, Open Wounds, p. 295.

26. The attack on Khojali is also important since it was followed by a massacre of civilians and prisoners of war, in which some 161 Azerbaijani civilians were killed. See Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, “Azerbaijan, Seven Years of Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh”, 1994: http://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/a/azerbjn/azerbaij94d.pdf.

27. For a debate on the legal perspective on the referendum, see Balayev (2013, 122–123).

28. Balayev (2013, 130–131. See also Altstadt (1992, 194).

29. Rasizade (2011); Interestingly, Rasizade dates the first act of violence perpetrated by an Azeri mob even before the anti-Armenian massacre in Sumgait on February 26–28, 1988.

30. Wikileaks, “Azerbaijan: Apparat, MFA, Socar, Turkish Embassy Cite Progress on Erdogan Visit, Energy Issues”, Cable ID 09BAKU401_a, May 15, 2009. https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BAKU401_a.html.

Additional information

Funding

This study was possible thanks to a research grant from Gulbenkian Foundation, and from Webster University Geneva.