Armenian-Turkish Relations in the Framework of Turkish and Armenian Scholarships

In: Iran and the Caucasus: research papers from the Caucasian Centre for Iranian Studies = Iran i kavkaz : trudy Kavkazskogo e͏̈tìsentra iranistiki, Band 14, Heft 2, S. 367-385

Abstract

AbstractUsually, the Armenian-Turkish relations are taken into consideration as they developed in the most recent and most tragic phase of their history—in the aftermath of 1915, the emblematic year of the Armenian Genocide under the last Ottoman rule. In all this phase those relations were branded by the awful shock of the Genocide. Notwithstanding these tremendous developments of the recent history, one cannot, however, ignore that Turks and Armenians had a long common history for nearly one millennium. It is not the aim of this study to draft a historical outline of the Armenian-Turkish relations. Such a task would require a collection of data and analyses going far beyond the limits of this paper. The author tries to give a more careful insight into the Armenian-Turkish relations, pointing at some of the major obstacles hindering a balanced and critically dialectical approach of them, free from passionate, biased, and stereotyped views and attitudes; the latter, in most cases, being the consequence of the bleeding trauma of the Armenians, and of the self-justificatory strategy of the Turks, which is also the result of a deep trauma even if due to different reasons than that of the Armenians.