75% of Armenians approve President Sargsyan’s decision to suspend ratification of protocols with Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - Following the past 12 months’ events around the attempted Armenia-Turkey rapprochement, Armenians have very little trust in Turkey as a country, or the Turkish people, according to the first ever “Comparative Opinion Polls in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh on Socio-Political Issues and Foreign Relations” conducted by European Friends of Armenia (EuFoA).

The survey showed that Armenians strongly approve (75% to 19%) of the Armenian President’s decision to suspend the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement protocols following the non-ratification by Turkey, and many support the President’s decision because they see it as hard to conclude a rapprochement with Turkey at all. Armenians overwhelmingly say that they personally never expected Turkey to conclude the rapprochement process and they think that its difficulties in ratifying the protocols were just an excuse not to do so. Amidst some internationally recognised progress in Turkey’s democratisation and Turkey’s so-called “zero-problem-policy” for its neighbours, Armenians strongly feel that Turkey has not become a more reliable neighbour or had a friendlier policy towards Armenia than five years ago.

Nonetheless, although Armenians are very suspicious of Turkey and Turkish people they also believe that there would be genuine benefits from a successful rapprochement. An overwhelming majority (78%) think that the Armenian economy would profit from more international trade and clear majorities think that it would give more options for Armenian foreign policy (61%) and the open border would bring Armenia closer to Europe (63%). There is still a strong suspicion of the benefits it would bring in relations with Turkey itself, as very few doubt it would make Turkey a better partner for Armenia in the framework of regional co-operation or that it would make it more likely for Turkey to recognise the Armenian Genocide and – a majority of people also believe it would bring increased trafficking and emigration (75% and 71% respectively).