As always, the first article in the 45th issue of our journal is “Facts and Comments”. This article covers Turkey-Armenia relations as well as internal and international developments of Armenia in the period of January-June 2022. The Second Karabakh War led to a substantial change in the region, opening new horizons for establishing peace, stability, cooperation, and neighborly relations in the region. The first step to activate this regional potential will be the signing of the Peace Treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but no concrete development could be achieved during this period. Meanwhile, the peace treaty process with Azerbaijan caused heated arguments in internal politics in Armenia. In this process, the EU tried to fill the void left by the ineffective OSCE Minsk Group co-chair system, which is favored by Armenia but causes discomfort for Russia. Another development has been the initiation of a normalization process between Turkey and Armenia, with both sides designating special representatives for negotiations. The special representatives met three times, but Turkey’s insistence on holding the talks directly in respective capitals could not be realized due to Armenia’s preference to conduct them with a third-party involvement. The proposal promulgated by the Turkish and Azerbaijani Presidents to establish a regional platform of six countries (receiving cool reaction from non-regional parties), convened for its first meeting with one absentee, Georgia, on political bilateral differences with Russia. The month of April was again an occasion to bring into agenda the unfounded Armenian narrative and allegations, with the US administration again going to the extremes in this regard. This narrative and allegations used by the West reveal that they are regarded as a political tool to exert political pressure on Turkey.
In his article titled “The Impact of Foreign Policy Thinking on the Introduction of the 1913-14 Armenian Reform Programme”, Mehmet Uğur Ekinci elucidates how the Ottoman Empire’s decision-making elite approached the Armenian reform question in the aftermath of the Young Turk revolution and demonstrates how foreign political considerations shaped the introduction of the 1913-14 reform program known as the “Eastern Anatolian Reforms.” The Ottoman decision-makers prioritized safeguarding the Empire’s external security and international position over satisfying the reform demands of the Ottoman Armenians. Thus, Ekinci argues, Ottoman foreign policy calculations significantly affected the solutions developed for an internal problem, and, moreover, internal reform was used as a foreign policy tool.
In her article titled “Some of the Historiographical Problems of Zangezur’s History”, Naila Velihanly seeks to expose the falsifications and invalidity of the theories concerning the history of Zangezur of the 7-12th centuries geared towards proving that the region is an ancient Armenian land. For this, Velihanly refers to numerous primary sources and historical facts to explain that Zangezur was, in fact, the land of Caucasian Albania that witnessed many changes in ethnic makeup and political rule. Because Zangezur is a strategic region that today makes up the southern territory of Armenia and separates the main territory of Azerbaijan from the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan, the debate over its history still has ramifications for the South Caucasus today.
In his article titled “The Reality of ‘Big Policy’ of Great Powers and their Stances on the Second Karabakh War”, Emin Arif Shikhaliyev narrates the sequence of key events that led to the outbreak of the Second Karabakh War, what factors shaped to position of the relevant actors in this conflict, and how the outcome of the war affected these relevant actors. Shikhaliyev explains that South Caucasus may be considered a geopolitical “stage for wolves” whereby all countries claiming hegemony and regional states are seeking to assert themselves. Shikhaliyev warns that, although the war ended in Azerbaijan’s victory in the battlefield, the war nevertheless continues in the political, diplomatic and information realm. In this regard, the alliance between Azerbaijan and Turkey will play a key role in safeguarding their rights and allowing them to prevent other actors such as Armenia, Russia, or France from undermining their position in the South Caucasus.
In their article titled “Communism Propaganda in Soviet Armenia”, Mehmet Sezai Türk, Abdülhakim Bahadır Darı, and Özkan Avcı analyzes a select number of Soviet propaganda posters that were meant to legitimize the communist regime in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. The authors explain that the Soviet administration used discourses that glorified the ideology of communism through the mass media it dominated, and in this way, it aimed for the peoples of the Soviet Union to embrace communism and implement the decisions taken by the regime without question. In this endeavor, it seems that propaganda posters were one of the preferred mediums to propagate the Soviet administration’s messages. By using the semiotics method, the authors reveal that the posters gave the message that communism played a leading role in the construction of a modern and prosperous Armenia, and at the same time, that the Armenian people were loyal to the communist ideology.
Have a nice reading and best regards,
Editor
Contributors: p. 5
Editorial Note: p. 7
ARTICLES: p. 9
Alev KILIÇ – “Facts and Comments”: p. 9 (Editorial)
Mehmet Uğur EKİNCİ – “The Impact of Foreign Policy Thinking on the Introduction of the 1913-14 Armenian Reform Programme”: p. 65 (Research Article)
Naila VELIHANLY – “Some of the Historiographical Problems of Zangezurʼs History”: p. 107 (Research Article)
Emin Arif SHIKHALIYEV – “The Reality of “Big Policy” of Great Powers and Their Stances on the Second Karabakh War”: p. 127 (Research Article)
Mehmet Sezai TÜRK - Abdülhakim Bahadır DARI - Özkan AVCI – “Communism Propaganda in Soviet Armenia”: p. 151 (Research Article)
Alev KILIÇ graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences of Ankara University in 1968. The next year, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey. Kılıç served as Ambassador to F.R. of Yugoslavia between 1996 and 1998 and Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg between 1998 and 2001. In 2001-2004, he served as the Deputy Undersecretary for Economic Affairs of the Ministry. He served as Ambassador to Switzerland (2004-2009) and Ambassador to Mexican United States (2009-2011). He retired from the Ministry in 2011. Ambassador (R) Kılıç has been the Director of Center for Eurasian Studies (AVİM) since 2013.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Uğur EKİNCİ received his B.A. in International Relations and his M.A. in History from Bilkent University. He completed his Ph.D. in Politics and International Studies at SOAS University of London. He currently works as an assistant professor at the Institute of Security Sciences, Turkish National Police Academy, Ankara. Among his research interests are contemporary Balkan politics, domestic-international linkages, Turkish foreign policy, and political history.
Prof. Dr. Naila Mamedali gizi VALIKHANLI is a prominent scientist, historian-orientalist, the Director of National Museum of Azerbaijan History, and an academician of Azerbaijan National Academy of Science (ANAS). She conducts studies on a variety of fields that include: the problem of sources in the medieval history of the Arab Caliphate and Azerbaijan; the study, analysis, publication of medieval sources; socio-economic relations, political and cultural history, and the historical geography of the region of Caucasia; and the study of museum materials on Azerbaijan history. Some of her scientific works include Arab geographers- travelers of IX-XII centuries on Azerbaijan (Baku, 1974, in Azerbaijani); Nakhchivan - from Arabs to Mongols (Baku, 2003, in Azerbaijani); and Zangazur- from Arabs to Mongols (Baku, 2021, in Azerbaijani).
Prof. Dr. Emin Arif SHIKHALIYEV was born in 1975 in Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan. He completed his undergraduate degree in 1998 from the Faculty of Language and History-Geography at Ankara University. He obtained his master’s degree in 2000 and his doctoral degree in 2004 from the Social Sciences Institute at Ankara University. Since 2004, he has been serving as the Head of the Department of Caucasian History at the Nakhchivan Branch of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) and works at the Faculty of International Relations and Law at Nakhchivan State University. He became an associate professor in 2012, and a professor in 2021. During his academic career, he participated in many conferences and symposiums in Turkey, Iran, Russia, and Germany, and conducted scientific research at the UK’s National Archives (London). Prof. Dr. Shikhaliyev has authored 9 books, and has published over 200 hundred articles in Azerbaijan and Turkey Turkish, as well as in Russian and English on a variety of subjects concerning the Armenian Question and the geopolitical interests of Great Powers, clash of civilizations, the Karabakh conflict, New World Order, and Caucasia.
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Sezai TÜRK graduated from the Faculty of Communication of Gazi University as an expert journalist in 1993. He began to work as a researcher at the Department of Printing Education of the Faculty of Technical Education in 1994. He completed his science expertise and doctoral studies in 2003. He was an Associate Doctor in Communication Sciences in 2010 and became a Professor in 2017. He has been a faculty member of the Department of Radio, Television, and Cinema of the Faculty of Communication at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University since 2018. Prof. Dr. Türk has also been serving as the Dean of the Faculty of Communication at Kyrgyzstan Manas University since September 2021. He assumed many administrative duties throughout his career, such as the Head of Printing Education Department in 2003, Department Coordinator of European Union Credit Transfer System (ETCS) in 2003, Assignee Directorship at Gazi University Polatlı Vocational Higher School in 2003, Head of Department of Printing Education in 2004-2007-2010, Head of Audio-Visual Techniques and Media Production Department at Gazi Vocational School in 2009, Head of Accounting and Tax Department at Gazi Vocational Higher School in 2009, and Head of the Department of Radio, Television, and Cinema of Faculty of Communication at Gazi University. He has also served as a member of many academic institutions and their departments, including: Faculty Member of the Coordination Projects of Gazi University, Board Member of Gazi University Atatürk Vocational School in 2008, Member of the Board of Directors of Gazi University, Deputy Director of the LLP-Erasmus Coordinator at Gazi Vocational Higher School, Cinema Incentive Board of the Ministry of Culture, and the Associate Professorship Board of UAK. Prof. Dr. Türk has published numerous national and international articles and papers, and five books, was a part of European Union projects, four scientific research projects, five Turkish Standard studies, and has prepared reports as a technical expert on many subjects. His main fields of study are: Strategic Communication (Risk, Reputation, Topic Agenda, Image, Crisis Management), New Media, Visual Culture Analysis, Public Relations, Political Communication, Perception Management, Organizational Culture, and Body Policies.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Abdülhakim Bahadır DARI was born in 1985 in Kadıköy, İstanbul. He graduated from Department of Business of the Faculty of Business at Anadolu University (Eskişehir/Turkey) in 2010. He completed his master’s degree in Department of Management and Work Psychology of Marmara University (İstanbul/Turkey) in 2012. He completed his doctorate degree in Department of Public Relations of Marmara University (İstanbul/Turkey) in 2017. He has been working as an Assistant Professor at Yalova University since 2019. His interest areas are social media and public relations.
Lecturer Özkan AVCI completed his undergraduate degree in Public Relations and Advertising, Political Science and Public Administration, and Business Administration and master’s degree in the Department of Public Relations and Publicity. His doctorate education continues in the field of Public Relations and Publicity. Since 2016, he has been working as a Lecturer in the Public Relations and Publicity Programme at Bartın University. He has studies on Public Relations, Emotional Intelligence, New Media, Propaganda and Communication Research that have appeared in books, book chapters, and articles published in both Turkish and international peer-reviewed journals.