The signing of an understanding between Turkey and Armenia for the normalisation of their diplomatic relations should take place in Zurich on October 10th. After a century’s hostility and silence, the two countries are getting close again by signing an understanding that many parties have defined as “epoch-marking”, even if caution is a must, as explained to SIR by the writer of Armenian descent Antonia Arslan, the author of such books as "The lark farm” and “The road to Smyrna”. “Mine is a cautious optimism – she explains –, unfortunately it has happened before that the excellent Turkish diplomacy seemed to make some steps forward which then turned out to be ineffectual”, not to mention that the normalisation of their relations does not mean yet the Turkish will acknowledge the Armenian genocide. “Actually, there’s still a lot of work to be done in this respect”, the writer states. “The Armenian diaspora is anguished and annoyed, because it has been left out, somehow, of this process”, adds Arslan, who thinks that, “maybe, even with the approval of their respective governments, this step will not endorsed by the national parliaments. Especially in Turkey, where the military caste is powerful and often in conflict with the prime minister, Erdogan, and president Abdullah Gul, who started this process by accepting last year the invitation of his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sargsyan, to go to the Yerevan stadium for the Armenia-Turkey football match”.

© SIR - 29 settembre 2009