Obviously the genocide is a key topic in the discussions between modern Armenia and Turkey, too, and Turkey has made concessions on that topic, accepting bilateral investigation commissions and that sort of thing. We'll have to see what kind of results those come up with, and how those results are dealt with - whether Turkey can accept them if they are more critical than it would like, and whether Armenia can accept them if they aren't as critical as it would like.

The main differences between modern Armenia and the Armenian diaspora communities are that, firstly, modern Armenia spent half a century under Soviet dictatorship, and as such has other and more recent scars, and secondly, they are a neighbour of Turkey and have an interest in maintaining good relations with it. The current détente has a lot of economic benefits for Armenia, although it will be hard to reach any permanently good relations as long as the Nagorno-Karabakh problem remains, whatever happens about the genocide. The diaspora on the other hand has all the money and the living comfort they want in France and the US, so what do they care about modern Armenia's economic and political interests, or its need to show some diplomacy in dealing with Turkey, all they care about is the genocide. You might want to think twice about letting a small but influential lobby like that influence your foreign policy in a way that harms relations with an important ally without seeming to bring the US much of anything. It's all very easy to suck up to the Armenian lobby while running for president or while sitting in Congress, but if you're actually in the White House or actually involved with the country's foreign policy, suddenly you no longer have the luxury of doing things for no better purpose than to claim a moral high ground.

And I'm sorry, but if you don't see real change in Turkey, the only thing I can say is, you're not looking. The fact that much of that change is inspired by the EU's demands doesn't mean that it isn't happening, and doesn't mean that they are things that can easily be turned back. Erdogan confronted the military head-on, had dozens of officers arrested. In the old Turkey, he would've had a coup coming and perhaps even would've been hanged. In modern Turkey, the chief of staff of the armed forces sucked it up and gave in - as armed forces in a democratic society are supposed to do, although I find many people think that rule doesn't apply to Turkey for some reason, and it's okay to overthrow democratic governments if they're Muslim.