The study which compiled the results of the project building confidence and reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia was launched at TEPAV.

ANKARA – The outputs of the project titled “A Confidence-Building and Reconciliation Field Guide for More Sustainable and Efficient Turkish-Armenian Cross-Border Partnerships” coordinated by TEPAV with the support of the German Marshall Fund (GMF) were compiled with a study titled “Reflecting on the Two Decades of Bridging the Divide: Taking Stock of Turkish-Armenian Civil Society Activities.”

The study conducted interviews and workshops to assess the civil society initiatives to normalize and reconcile Turkish-Armenian relations from both sides via interviews and workshops. The study is aimed to guide civil society practitioners working in this field.

The study conducted by Dr. Burcu Gültekin Punsmann, Senior Policy Analyst at TEPAV, and Esra Çuhadar Gürkaynak, Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science in Bilkent University and assisted by Seda Kırdar, TEPAV Research Associate was launched at TEPAV with an event held on January 11, 2012, Wednesday.

“We cannot wait for the opening of the border to open our minds”

Delivering opening remarks, Özgür Ünlühisarcıklı, Director of GMF Ankara, said that Turkey and Armenia did not only bordered but also had a collective memory due to which the issue became more challenging and required larger efforts from the civil society. He maintained that the parties should not wait for the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border to open up their minds. Adding that he had always wanted to learn about the civil society efforts for the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, Ünlühisarcıklı stressed that the study would fill a large gap with this respect.

Largest increase witnessed during 2001, 2005 and 2008…

Following the opening remarks, Burcu Gültekin Punsmann and Esra Çuhadar Gürkaynak summarized the results of the study. Some of the highlights of the presentation are summarized below:

-       The general trend is that Turkish-Armenian civil society initiatives have been on a steady rise since 1995 while civil society and private actors started getting involved in the bilateral relations only after 1997.

-       The first upsurge was observed in 2001, the second one in 2005, and the final one in 2008. Here, the availability of funding especially from US sources and the evolution of Track One relations and negotiations were affective.

-       23.8 percent of the projects under scrutiny were interactive workshop/joint working group activities, followed by exchange/dialogue/contact activities (19 percent) and conference/academic format events and cultural projects (17.4 percent).

-       Considering the sources of funding for the Turkish-Armenia initiatives, the largest share comes from the US (47.3 percent). Projects funded by European sources had a 26.3 percent share. The share of projects financed via local sources and mixed funding sources were 17.5 percent and 8.7 percent, respectively.

-      Most of the projects were implemented by NGOs in Istanbul and Yerevan and borderlands and NGOs in Ankara were underrepresented.

The study stressed the growing need to increase the impact of the initiatives in Turkey and said, “It is necessary to overcome the dichotomy of reconciliation and normalization, which are complementary processes and should move forward simultaneously.” Drawing attention to the closer interaction between practitioners close to the political will and decision makers, the study stated, “Joint activities will increase the effectiveness of projects and involve non-political actors to the process.”

Among the needs the study identified were, “democratizing access to funds and diversification of sources, capacity building and institutionalization of the process via strengthening relations, building cross-border professional partnerships through practical projects, establishing informational channels between the two societies, and helping rediscover the common past and shared memories.” The study maintained that trilateral reconciliation projects that also involve Azerbaijan could address the deep roots of the existing mistrust.

The study was completed by the end of 2011

“A Confidence-Building and Reconciliation Field Guide for More Sustainable and Efficient Turkish-Armenian Cross-Border Partnerships” Project was launched by TEPAV in June 2011 and completed by the end of the year. In this context, the project created a detailed inventory of all civil society efforts carried out so far.  The analysis and assessment addressed the following themes:

Focus groups (elites or grassroots), durations and location of the initiatives, theories of change the projects are based on (view of practitioners about the main causes of conflict, the dimensions of conflict that the projects address, activities conducted, how these activities are associated with the matter of conflict etc.), the way practitioners transfer the insights, results and opinions to the society and political level, whether or not project leaders have access to political circles or basically whether or not projects aimed at any political goal.

With a workshop held in TEPAV in July, selected practitioners from Turkey and Armenia were brought together to address past experiences in the field and potential contributions to policy-making process. The Armenian mission hosted in Ankara by TEPAV also met with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Undersecretary to Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu.