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Armenian-Turkish Relations

The Caucasus Institute (CI) in Yerevan, Armenia, was one of the first organizations to launch Armenia-Turkey civil society rapprochement initiative starting from 2005.

The activities had different components and were realized with the support of various partners and donors including the Swiss Development and Cooperation (SDC), UNDP, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the EU and others, resulting in partnerships with the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) and Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), the leading think-tanks in Turkey.

Conferences and roundtables in Yerevan and Turkey had attendance on vice-ministerial level and activities received media coverage on national scale in both countries. Publications and policy papers were positively received by policy-makers and International Organizations.

The rapprochement that began in spring 2008 was to a large degree the result of advocacy by Turkish civil society and of the fact that relations with Armenia had become part of the domestic discourse; to both, CI has made an important contribution.

The first CI Research Paper published in 2010 entitled Pragmatic Policies vs. Historical Constraints:  Analyzing Armenia-Turkey Relations, summarizes the research outcome in this sphere done by CI over the previous five years.