Armenian-Turkish Reconciliation: How Sincere is Ankara's Aim?

The Turkish President's personal call to the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople and, at the same time, the slow process of opening closed borders testify to the contradictory nature of Armenian-Turkish relations. Patriarch Sahak Mashalyan notes that in recent years the community's voice has become more audible, but the 100-year burden of tension is still felt. Turkish analysts emphasize that the Azerbaijan factor plays a key role in the normalization process, while former Istanbul-Armenians recall the influence of the state's deep structures. Meanwhile, the Armenian community faces a demographic threat: population decline, emigration, and the forgetting of the language. And at the societal level, it is still difficult to overcome the fears and stereotypes shaped by history.