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The historic visit to Armenia by Turkish President Abdullah Gul is a chance to start a new era between these two peoples who have had a poisonous relationship based on decades of hatred, fuelled by massacres and memories of persecution.
Before the First World War, historic Armenia was part of the Tsarist empire, but hundreds of thousands of Armenians lived in the neighbouring rival Ottoman Empire.
However, the cause of the present day hatred lies in the chaos in the Ottoman Empire as it lost the First World War, when the Armenians say that 1.5 million of them were massacred between 1915 and 1917 in an orchestrated attempt at genocide; while the Turks say that 500,000 Armenians were killed (as well as many Turks) in civil war as parts of the failing Ottoman Empire tried to succeed.
These accusations were frozen for decades as the Armenians lost their independence to the Soviet Union in 1920, and the Turks tried to cover up the killings. However, after Armenia's restored independence in 1991, all the hidden fury came back to the fore. It was fuelled by Turkish support for Azerbaijan (Azeris are Turkic in origin) in the war over the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh surrounded by Azerbaijan, during which Turkey blockaded Armenia and only stopped after peace was declared.
It is important that a new spirit is built between these two historic neighbours. The Turkish President has taken a brave step in starting the process, but his single visit has to turn into a solid process. This will require the Turks to persevere and the Armenians to respond, which will not be easy for either. There is much to forgive on both sides. Strong leadership in Turkey and Armenia is needed to overcome resistance from the more intransigent sections of their populations.
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