A high-profile event in late 2001 was the decision of the Armenian members of the Armenian-Turkish “Reconciliation Commission” to withdraw from the commission.

In a statement adopted on December 11, 2001, former Armenian Foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanyan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Armenian Assembly of America Van Krikorian, former Ambassador to Syria David Hovhannisyan and Russian political analyst Andranik Migranyan said their decision was based on the unilateral appeal by Turkish members of the commission to the International Center for Transitional Justice, demanding that the center refuse to study the compliance of the Armenian Genocide with the UN Genocide Convention of 1948. However, the appeal to the center was agreed upon by all members of the commission at its last meeting held in New York from November 18 to 21.

Alexander Arzumanyan stated that after this step by Turkish colleagues, the Armenian participants could not trust them anymore.

The news of the split in the commission provoked sharply diametric comments in Yerevan. The “Dashnaktsutyun” party, which had been the most fierce critic of the commission from the beginning, along with some other political forces and the media, was openly gloating, asserting that sooner or later the commission would “die”, and it was good that it happened now, before it could “do too much harm.” On the other hand, Alexander Arzumanyan’s associates from the former ruling party Armenian Pan-National Movement did not miss the opportunity to criticize the current authorities. Levon Zurabyan, spokesperson for former Armenian President Ter-Petrosyan, argued that the authorities had escalated the confrontation with Turkey to an extremely dangerous level.

President Kocharian’s Press Secretary, Vahe Gabrielyan, told Mediamax that the decision of the Armenian members of the “Reconciliation Commission” was “predictable”. He reminded that official Yerevan advocated for initiating dialogue between Armenia and Turkey at the state level. At the same time, the spokesman emphasized that the Armenian authorities had never hindered any Armenian-Turkish contacts.

Those inclined to see the “hand” of official Yerevan in the commission’s collapse recalled that Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian had urged the Armenian members of the commission to assess the path they passed over the five months and decide whether to continue their activities. However, it seemed highly unlikely that the Armenian members of the commission, who had been severely criticized in Armenia and the Diaspora over the past few months, could make a decision “at the request” of Oskanian.

The question of the official Armenian authorities’ attitude towards the establishment of the commission remained rather confusing. In July 2001, three days after the commission was established, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Dzyunik Aghajanyan unequivocally stated that the Foreign Ministry had nothing to do with its establishment. At the same time Armenian Presidential Spokesperson Vahe Gabrielyan stated that Robert Kocharian had been aware of the establishment of the commission, but official Yerevan did not take any part in its formation.

On July 21, Alexander Arzumanyan claimed that the issue of creating the commission had been discussed with the president and foreign minister of Armenia for several months. Mediamax sources indicated that the leadership of the Armenian Assembly of America first presented the initiative to set the commission to Robert Kocharian in May, during the “Investments in Armenia” business forum in New York.

The tactics of the Armenian participants of the commission on the Genocide issue changed several times. Immediately after its establishment, they stated that they would not discuss the issue of recognition of the Genocide by Turkey with their Turkish colleagues. On August 2, they adopted a statement saying that “the Armenian Genocide is an internationally recognized fact.” In November, the entire commission decided to appeal to the International Center for Transitional Justice.

Following this chronology, the Armenian participants of the commission never disputed the fact of the Armenian Genocide, in which they were tried to be accused of. A more plausible accusation was that the commission’s activities could have slowed down the process of international recognition of the Genocide. In particular, in October 2001, the European Parliament did not include a demand for recognition of the Armenian Genocide in a report on Turkey’s progress towards European Union membership, limiting itself to a statement of support for “a group of Armenian and Turkish academics and former diplomats whose aim is to ‘reach a common understanding of the past’”.

Another factor that could have influenced the collapse of the commission could have been the attempt to introduce elements of great power rivalry into its activities.

Although U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones stated in Yerevan on August 28 that the establishment of the commission was a “private initiative,” facts subsequently emerged that the U.S. directly or indirectly financed it. In mid-October, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) reported, citing a Congressional Research Service report, that the U.S. State Department funded the commission’s activities through a grant.

Just a few days after this information was published, Vahan Hovhannisyan, one of the leaders of Dashnaktsutyun and head of the Parliamentary Commission on National Security and Defense, discussed Moscow’s attitude toward the “Reconciliation Commission” with Vyacheslav Trubnikov, Russia’s First Deputy Foreign Minister. Hovhannisyan asserted that the Russian side shared Dashnaktsutyun’s concerns about the establishment of the commission, as “ultimately, it is about Turkey’s aspiration to gain a foothold in the South Caucasus and play a dominant role in the region.”

Interestingly, in July 2001, a few days after the announcement of the establishment of the “Reconciliation Commission”, one of its Turkish members, former Turkish Ambassador to the UN Gunduz Aktan, published an article in the Turkish Daily News in which he wrote that one of the reasons for the need to normalize Armenian-Turkish relations was “Russia’s significant influence on Armenia, which threatens the Caucasus.”

A week before the announcement of the split in the commission, Andranik Migranyan noted that the American side was very interested in the work of the commission and it would be useful to include Russian mediators in it to maintain the balance of power. “I made this proposal, but I do not know yet what the decision will be,” the political analyst said.

Ara Tadevosyan

Photos by John Steinmayer and Photolure were used in this chapter.