Abstract:

Armenians lived in peace in the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years. However, just as in the Balkans, the French Revolution and subsequent developments had a big impact in the Caucasus. The Armenian people’s dream of a great Armenia, which includes eastern Turkey, started in the late Ottoman period and still remains alive today. As a result of the events that occurred in 1915, which were also affected by the provocation of the Tsardom of Russia, the Ottoman Government forced the Armenian people to migrate from the places they lived. Armenia declared its independence upon opting out the Transcaucasia Assembly established after the Bolshevik Revolution. However, soon afterwards it entered the domination of the USSR. It declared its independence again when the USSR dissolved, still holding tothe dream of acquiring lands from eastern Turkey by grounding its relationship with Turkey on the claims of Armenian genocide. In the 2000s, Turkey initiated a policy to establish good relationships with its neighbors, particularly focusing on Armenia as well as some other countries. Nevertheless, this attempt was untimely, considering the opposition of the Armenian diaspora to finding fair solutions to the problems between these countries, and the ongoing border conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The system of international relations is still based on realist grounds, which makes it necessary to carry out actions only after sufficiently analyzing the benefits and costs.

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