Turkish Opinions: 'One Nation, Two States,' An Unreal Idea

During numerous talks with public figures and journalists in Istanbul, Tert.am’s correspondents tried to find out to what extent this corresponds to reality.

“This is an idea, which, in fact, only opposition representatives speak about in Turkey, using it as a ‘trump card’ in their struggle with the governing parties. When it comes to Armenian-Turkish relations, they immediately remind everyone that the Azerbaijani people are our brothers,” said one Turkish citizen, who is well aware of the ups and downs of Turkey’s inner political life: he works with a NGO, cooperating with international bodies and dealing with Armenian-Turkish and Turkish-Greek relations.

In fact, he states, even the opposition representatives don’t speak about “one nation, two states” in that way.

“For ordinary Turkish people, it is something unreal. You can come out to the streets in Istanbul and ask people, I am sure most of them will not get the essence of the issue at all, because they have a vague idea of Azerbaijan and the situation in Azerbaijan,” said the NGO worker.

He is convinced that Turkish-Azerbaijani relations are on a good level, particularly in terms of the economy, but it doesn’t mean that an understanding of the different issues should be the same.

Tert.am correspondents spoke with a number of journalists, both Turkish and Armenian, on the same topic over two to three days while in Istanbul.

As Agos (a Turkish paper) Editor Aris Nalci noted in conversation with Tert.am, in Turkey, talks on such understandings are not possible, and that is unequivocal.

Tert.am
Used with permission.