MANDACI, Nazif Yaşar University - Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences - Department of International Relations, Turkey

RECONCILIATION UNDER THE SHADOW OF DIASPORA POLITICS: SOME LESSONS FROM THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN RECONCILIATION COMMISSION (TARC)

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Reconciliation is beyond diplomatic rapprochement and consequently strategic partnership in its maxim. It is irrelevant to transaction costs; moreover, “independent from them” since it is normative-oriented. Literature of reconciliation contains some concepts which cannot be “appreciated”, literally, in diplomatic realm, such as forgiving and forgetting, having theological connotations. To the contrary, international relations literature generally accept that “primordial factors like ethnicity and religion had no part in rational explanations for the way the world works”(Fox and Sandler 2004: 9); and nobody appreciates any political decision that sacrifices national interest on the altar of virtue. This study aims at elaborating on the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission which Turkey and Armenia had formed in 2001 within the framework of the aforementioned arguments.

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Reconciliation , TARC , Diaspora

dokuz eylul university the journal of graduate school of social sciences

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