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Special envoys from Turkey and Armenia will hold a second round of talks in Vienna later this month to normalise ties after decades of animosity. The day after direct flights re-started between Yerevan and İstanbul, FRANCE 24’s Turkey correspondents Shona Bhattacharyya and Ludovic de Foucaud traveled to the Armenian capital to find out what residents there think of the thawing of relations.
Shoppers and vendors who would agree to speak on camera are few and far between. Many are angry that Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan accepted Turkey’s invitation to talk without first recognising what Armenia calls the 1915 genocide.
As Haïg, one Yerevan resident said, “Opening the borders is mostly for encouraging economic development. But building a more fraternal relationship, no, that’s out of the question. An Armenian proverb says, ‘If your enemy becomes your friend, you should still keep a stick in your hand.'”
As part of the former Soviet empire, Armenia’s economy is still largely dependent on Russia. Half of its citizens live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
Dikran Altun, a Turkish Armenian, and founder of a now bankrupt airline, is cautiously optimistic about the possibility of stronger ties. “One of the ways to give more proper life to the people is to have some connections with Turkey. It’s one of the ways; it’s not the only way but [up] until now we had no connections and people are living like this…” he said.
Overlooking the city is a memorial to the victims of the events of 1915. Although the Armenian government is in favour of stronger ties with Turkey, starting with trade, on the street the most important ingredient for normalisation remains elusive: trust.
And without trust, reconciliation is highly unlikely.
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