Huffington Post. Turkey and Armenia at loggerheads

Turkey and Armenia missed an historic opportunity to improve ties when Turkey refused to ratify the Protocols on the Establishment of Diplomatic and Bilateral Relations signed on October 10, 2009. Rather than rapprochement, Armenians are now fully mobilized to organize worldwide activities commemorating the one hundred year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24, 2015. Armenia would never sacrifice gaining greater global recognition of genocide for cross-border cooperation with Turks. However, trade can still play a helpful role reducing tensions and creating positive momentum in Turkish-Armenian relations.

More than a closed border, Turks and Armenians are divided by different perceptions of history. More thanone million Armenians perished during the final years of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. Turkey disputes these facts, referring to the events as "shared suffering." Turkey demands a joint historical commission to address the "Armenian question." The political impasse between Turkey and Armenia is compounded by Ankara's linking of relations with Armenia to resolution of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh where Armenians and Azerbaijanis fought a brutal war displacing 600,000 people in the early 1990s.

The governments of Turkey and Armenia may be at loggerheads, but Turks and Armenians are still engaging in economic diplomacy, working on cross-border activities beneath the radar. Commercial contact involves mostly "suitcase trade" involving consumer goods transported from Turkey through Georgia to Armenia.

But bigger business is possible. Armenia could sell surplus electricity to Turkey which needs energy to power its economic boom. Armenia could also tap into Turkey's state-of-the-art fiber optic cable to meet its growing demand for Internet. Railway service between Kars in Turkey and Gyumri in Armenia could resume when Turkey opens its border gate. In anticipation, Armenia could begin conforming the country's Soviet-era railway gauge to Turkish and European standards.

There is currently no contact between Turkish and Armenian officials. While the Turkey-Armenia protocols called for a "dialogue on the historical dimension," Armenians balked when Turkey demanded a commission to determine whether the events of 1915 met the definition of genocide.

Instead of trying to reinvent history, Turkey's Prime Minister Erdoğan can make history through an executive order to open the border and normalize travel and trade as a step toward diplomatic relations. Bolder yet, he could submit the protocols on normalization and diplomatic relations to the Turkish parliament with his personal endorsement for ratification.

With an eye on his legacy, Erdoğan could also call for parliament to repeal Article 301 of the penal code, which makes it a crime to "denigrate Turkishness" and is used to repress free the freedom of expression. Repealing regressive legislation would make Turks more free, and also benefit Turkey's EU aspirations.