According to KurdPress, Garo Paylan—an expert on Turkish affairs and a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington—emphasized in an interview with the news outlet *Amarji* that, for the first time in a century, two issues the Republic of Turkey had consistently avoided confronting have simultaneously come to the fore. According to him, Turkey's current leaders now face a choice: either find a sustainable solution to these two crises or once again defer them to an uncertain future.

This politician of Armenian descent described Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli as the two key players in this process, stating that these two politicians—both in their seventies—would determine the future of the Kurdish and Armenian issues.

In his view, Erdoğan—who has held power in Turkey for over two decades—and Bahçeli—who has unexpectedly supported the reconciliation process with the Kurds in recent years—are in a position to make historic decisions due to the concentration of political power they hold.

Pointing to the role of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk during the early years of the Turkish Republic, Paylan noted that Atatürk, too, had the opportunity to recognize Kurdish rights and reconcile with the Armenians but failed to do so.

Paylan believes that the NATO summit scheduled to be held in Turkey in the summer of 2026 could serve as an opportunity to take significant steps forward. He proposed that, on the sidelines of the summit, Erdoğan invite Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan, and Nikol Pashinyan, the Prime Minister of Armenia, to a quadrilateral meeting. In his view, such a meeting—coinciding with the announcement of progress in the peace process with the Kurds—could lead to the reopening of the border between Turkey and Armenia, which has remained closed since 1993.

Paylan also suggested naming the new border crossing after Hrant Dink—the Turkish journalist of Armenian descent who was assassinated in 2007—a move he believes could symbolize the beginning of a new chapter in relations between the two nations.

At the same time, this former Turkish politician warned that the current window of opportunity is rapidly closing. Pointing to the results of recent elections in Armenia, he noted that the vote share for the "Civil Contract" party, led by Nikol Pashinyan, has been on a downward trend across three consecutive elections; notably, the party failed to secure the majority needed to advance a peace agreement with Azerbaijan and Turkey in the June 2026 elections. According to Paylan, the rise in support for pro-Russian parties and Vladimir Putin’s refusal to congratulate Pashinyan are worrying signs for the future of the normalization process. Recalling the experience of the 1990s, he noted that Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Armenia’s first president, had also once been prepared to make peace with Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Pailan believes that the Republic of Turkey was founded on policies that marginalized Armenian and Kurdish identities. According to him, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the leadership of the time sought to establish a nation-state based on a Turkish-Muslim identity, thereby excluding Christians from the social fabric; subsequently, the new republic was anchored in the concept of "Turkishness." He added that Kurds resisted these policies from the very early years of the republic, and—after promises regarding their rights went unfulfilled—launched uprisings; the brutal suppression of these revolts, including the events in Dersim in 1938, stands as a pivotal chapter in Turkey's modern history.

Paylan emphasized that addressing the issue of the Armenian Genocide is also impossible without Turkey becoming more democratic. In his view, expanding relations between the peoples of Turkey and Armenia, reopening borders, and developing trade and cultural cooperation could pave the way for a serious dialogue regarding historical justice and the events of 1915. Concluding his remarks, he stressed that the current opportunity to simultaneously resolve the historical issues concerning both the Kurds and the Armenians is unprecedented; he noted that while this window has not yet fully closed, it is narrowing by the day, and if not seized, it could once again be lost for many years.