Tuesday, April 21 2015 11:38

 The Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC)-Armenia has presented the results of its public opinion survey on the Ways for Normalization of Armenian-Turkish Relations. 

The nation-wide survey implemented with a sample of 1,164 households reveals respondents' perceptions and attitudes towards the official politics, concerning the opening of the land border and normalization of relations, among other issues.  In particular, the survey shows that each second respondent (51%) fully or rather approves opening of the border between Armenia and Turkey, which each third (33%) is absolutely or rather against it. 

CRRC Research Director Heghine Manasyan said at the presentation ceremony the accuracy of the survey is 95%  3%. 

 "More than 70% of respondents believe that Azerbaijan affects the Armenia-Turkey relations greatly. In addition, approximately 85% of the respondents had first hear about the Armenian Genocide by the time they were below 11 years old and 54% of the respondents reported that they have ancestors suffered from the Armenian Genocide (were displaced or killed.). Only 9% of respondents think that Turkey's recognition of the Armenian Genocide in next 5-10 years is possible," Manasyan said. As to the major cause of any genocide, about 40% of respondents choose the following proposed answer: "The majority nation wants to establish nation state, while ethnic minorities are fight for independence" The second choice (39%) was "Politicians of ethnic majority incite hatred toward ethnic minorities."  

The sturdy shows that, currently, Armenians value the role of political relations less and believe that economic and cultural relations are much more important - 62% versus 37%, which almost one-fifth of respondents see the possibility of relation in all areas.  

When asked whether Armenia and Turkey will even reconcile, 30% of respondents said they would never reconcile, which 40% gave positive likelihood of reconciliation. The findings can be used to make the foreign policy more representative of the population's opinion. 

Andrej Didenko, Political Officer at the European Delegation to Armenia, in turn, said 8 organizations from Armenia and Turkey have been implementing a project "Assisting Armenian-Turkish Normalization" since January 2014 and the survey was conducted as part of the project. It aims to bring the Armenian and Turkish societies closer to promote the two countries' relations. 

Richard Giragosian, Director of the Center for Regional Studies, is sure the project is very promising. The survey revealed certain shortcomings in the Armenian-Turkish relations. He said in Turkey they are not aware of the real state of affairs in Armenia since the two countries lack diplomatic relations. Giragosian said Armenia has no sufficient information on the real situation in Turkey.
The analyst is sure that such surveys will help normalize the Armenian-Turkish relations without precondition and change the mentality and general ideas of the two countries' societies. 

The survey was funded by the European Union.