Author(s): Esme ÖZDAŞLI
A new process referred to as “Armenian Expansion” especially in the Turkish media for the normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations for the normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations started in the Swiss arbitration in 2007. The first concrete step to re-establish diplomatic dialogue between the two countries was taken with the signing of the protocols in Zurich on October 10, 2009. On January 12, 2010, Armenian Constitutional Court connected the implementation of the Protocols to some pre-conditions in its reasoned decision although it approved the Protocols. The requests, such as evaluating 1915 events as “genocide” and ignoring Kars Treaty determining the Turkey-Armenia borders, which are unacceptable for Turkey brought the end of the so-called expansion process. On the other hand, Azerbaijan frequently voiced that Turkey's opening the border before the end of Nagorno-Karabakh occupation despite the change in none of the reasons for the closure of the borders would further encourage Armenia for the occupation more and responded to Turkey on different occasions. Tension in Ankara-Baku line which would cause irredeemable problems has been hampered with the end of expansion process and thanks to the social sensitivities of both countries, and Turkey-Azerbaijan relations could also get rid of the recession in question in the further periods. In this study, the attitudes of Azerbaijani university students regarding the Armenian Expansion process have been studied to determine. The questionnaire used in the study consists of questions that measure attitudes towards opening Turkey-Armenia border being forward with the expansion, Turkey's relations with Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan’s relations with Armenia. 208 Azerbaijani students were reached through easy sampling method. Frequency and percentage distributions were used to see the general attitudes. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskall Wallis H tests were used to see the difference between groups occurring in the context of gender, age and attitudes towards Turkey. As a result of the survey, it is seen that the majority of the have students a negative perspective for “Armenian Expansion”. On the other hand, attitude differences of the students about gender, age ranges, seeing Turkey as a cognate country, an economic and political partner or a coreligionist country, having university education in Turkey, Azerbaijan or other countries, seeing Turkey as a friendly and brotherly country, a foreign country or an allied country are observed. The number of students having a positive look on expressing the situation between Turkey and Azerbaijan as “one nation, two states” and believing that the relationship between two countries will strengthen more in the future are also in the majority.
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