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RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAK #0468/01 0701520
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 101520Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5539
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 000468 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV SCUL OPRC AM TU
SUBJECT: YOUNG TURKS VISIT ARMENIA:  BUILDING TIES THAT BIND 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
¶2.  (U) SUMMARY.  Several Turkish alumni of British 
universities who visited Armenia January 20-25 shared with us 
a taste of their unique experience and the favorable 
impressions made by their Armenian contacts.  The realization 
that Turks and Armenians share a common culture and 
orientation, and the kindness and hospitality shown them, 
moved the Turkish delegates, who admitted to having had some 
fears about visiting Armenia.  The Turks met with a wide 
variety of political, business and NGO groups, as well as 
with fellow British university alumni.  All their Armenian 
interlocutors spoke freely about their desire for normalized 
relations between Turkey and Armenia, even as they trod 
carefully on historical issues.  With a delegation featuring 
journalists, economists, and academics, the visit offered 
fresh insights and a favorable impression of Armenia to a 
group of influential young Turkish professionals whose 
impressions, until now, of Armenia had been largely 
influenced by rancorous Turkish and Armenian media coverage. 
Noting the extensive network of U.S. university graduates in 
Turkey and Armenia, all the participants with whom we spoke 
recommended U.S. support for similar programs.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) World Bank Project Director Baris Dincer, Aksam 
Daily Diplomatic Correspondent Sevil Kucukkosum and, 
separately, TOBB University International Relations 
Department Associate Professor Mitat Celikpala (PROTECT) 
described for us March 5 their experience visiting Armenia 
from January 20-25 as part of an eight-person British 
Chevening Scholar alumni delegation.  The delegation was 
selected by the Turkish Armenian Business Development Council 
(TABDC) and the financing provided by the British Embassy. 
Armenian Chevening Scholar alumni are scheduled to pay a 
return visit to Istanbul, March 17. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The Turkish delegates with whom we spoke emphasized 
the benefits of the visit to their professional careers. 
Kucukkosum, a diplomatic correspondent, noted that Armenian 
media had been her primary source of news on Armenia and 
Armenian views on Turkey.  But she found none of the Armenian 
media's hostility toward Turkey in the people she met -- some 
of whom were meeting a Turk for the very first time.  Dincer, 
a privatization specialist, said the trip offered a unique 
opportunity to expand his knowledge of post-Soviet economic 
transition, while Celikpala, a leading Turkish South Caucasus 
specialist, gained invaluable insights on the pre-election 
mood in Armenia, and has already had published three articles 
on Armenia deriving from his experience. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) While each participant focused on a particular 
aspect of Armenian politics, society, culture and economy, a 
number of common observations surprised the delegates: 
 
-- The cultural similarities between Turks and Armenians were 
profound and unexpected.  From food to music to the way 
people spoke and told stories, the Turks sensed a shared 
history and common identity which moved them.  Many of the 
older Armenians they met spoke Turkish, and nearly all their 
contacts described an ancestry in Turkey.  As with Greeks, 
with whom Turks also share a significant cultural heritage, 
religion is a divide.  But the Turks said they were surprised 
to learn that Armenian Orthodox tradition and ritual 
resembles Anatolian Islamic practice in many regards. 
 
-- Historical events weighed on the interactions between the 
two peoples, but did not preclude open and productive 
discussions on a wide range of topics, including the border 
and Turkey-Armenia relations, even with GOAM officials. 
Hospitality is a shared cultural value, and the Armenian 
people proved friendly, kind and incapable, it seemed, of 
offending their guests; both sides chose to skirt the most 
contentious issues.  Kucukkosum lamented that Armenian 
genocide claims sadden her more deeply now knowing that such 
claims come from a people who are otherwise brothers and 
sisters. 
 
-- The territorial claims on Turkey perpetuated by the 
Dashnak Party and some diaspora groups are not taken 
seriously by most Armenians, the Turkish delegates came to 
believe.  Yet they were surprised and perhaps a bit unsettled 
by how much symbols matter there and the reverence with which 
Armenians hold Mount Ararat, in Eastern Turkey. 
 
-- The Turks said political and economic tensions in Yerevan 
were palpable during their visit, and were thus not surprised 
by the post-election conflict in Armenia.  Most of their 
Armenian contacts had predicted PM Sargsian would not reach 
the fifty percent threshold and that the opposition would 
unify around Ter-Petrossian (LTP) in the second round.  They 
also noticed Sargsian campaign supporters were criticizing 
 
ANKARA 00000468  002 OF 002 
 
 
LTP over his perceived moderation toward Turkey. 
 
-- Armenians wanted Turkey to be unbiased on the 
Nagorno-Karabakh (N-K) conflict and would like Turkey to 
distinguish N-K from normalizing TU-AM bilateral relations. 
While discussed openly, N-K was one issue on which the 
Turkish delegates found a degree of inflexibility from their 
Armenian contacts.  But they also noted that their Armenian 
contacts described Azerbaijanis as even more obsessed than 
they with the issue and even less capable of reasonable 
dialogue on the issue. 
 
-- Tensions within Armenia are also fueled by a frustration 
with the heavy Russian, diaspora influence in the economy and 
Armenia's political and geographic isolation, the Turkish 
delegates observed.  They detected a lack of confidence in 
the future of Russia-Armenia relations and that some 
Armenians blame Turkey for Armenia's dependence on Moscow. 
Armenians, they said, desire a strengthened Western 
orientation and long for Armenia's EU accession one day. 
While some NGOs perhaps naively wished for Turkey and Armenia 
to accede to the EU together, the Turks said most of their 
Armenian contacts view Turkey as a bridge to Europe and 
Turkey's EU accession as key to Armenia's own hopes of one 
day joining that club.  In this regard, Armenians, they 
noted, keenly follow domestic political developments in 
Turkey, and are somewhat concerned about a perceived Islamic 
trajectory in Turkey's orientation.  But a number of 
Armenians told the Turkish delegates that they believe the 
current Turkish government offers a brighter opportunity for 
normalized relations than previous Turkish administrations. 
 
--  Armenian youth are more open to dialogue, even as older 
generations have closer cultural and linguistic ties to 
Turkey.  A number of young Armenians claimed to have made 
Turkish friends on-line.  This was a hopeful observation, 
belying a tendency among young people in other long-standing 
regional conflicts to become increasingly rigid and 
absolutist in their demands over time.  Post Cultural 
Assistant noted that Turkish, Armenian and Azerbaijani high 
school students participating in a European Students Forum 
(AEGEE) network meeting in Ankara February 22-24 also 
demonstrated a capacity for productive dialogue, at least on 
"soft issues." 
 
COMMENT:  ALUMNI NETWORKING EFFECTIVE 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) These observations demonstrated for the Turkish 
delegates that Turks have much in common with their estranged 
neighbors.  The visit reinforced for them that Turkey can 
play a positive role in helping strengthen Armenia's economic 
independence and European orientation.  Evidenced by these 
British university graduates' rewarding experience, U.S. 
alumni networking could offer an even greater opportunity to 
bring together young Turkish and Armenian professionals who 
are occupying, or can expect to occupy, influential positions 
in Turkish and Armenian politics, business, media and 
academia.  Post appreciates Department and USAID support for 
this and other types of programming that bring Turks and 
Armenians together in a way that allows the two sides to 
better understand each other and develop an appreciation for 
their shared culture and traditions and respect for their 
differences. 
 
Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turk ey 
 
WILSON