Ankara §

Turkish republican capital and normalisation gatekeeper

Ankara became the Turkish nationalist capital during the war against the post-World War I settlement and later the capital of the Republic of Turkey. From Ankara's standpoint, the treaties of Sevres and Wilsonian Armenia were defeated projects, while Lausanne and the Turkish-Soviet border settlements became the valid international order.

In contemporary politics Ankara controls the closed Armenia-Turkey border and links normalisation with Yerevan to the Azerbaijan track. The 2009 Zurich Protocols failed under the pressure of genocide recognition politics, Azerbaijani objections and domestic Turkish politics. After the 2020 war, Ankara's support for Baku made Turkish-Armenian normalisation even more dependent on the Zangezur corridor and peace treaty agenda. contested

Ankara is thus the place where Ottoman denial, Turkish security strategy, Azerbaijani alliance politics and regional transport plans become state policy.