Since the question of 1915 is still with us as a historical, moral, and political issue, the VAT was an attempt in the frame work of conflict solution and reconciliation between academic representatives of The Turkish Historical Society and The Armenian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. As a genuine Austrian initiative, VAT served from 2003-2005 as an intermediary as well as a platform on equal terms which enabled two of the most influential institutions of Armenia and Turkey to present their documents concerning the years 1914-1919 and showing their understanding of this delicate matter.
The collection of documents (a total of 179) from the archives of Austria, Turkey, USA, Germany and France published in this volume does not try to present a strategy beyond the dominant, conventional ones currently pursued by political perceptions. However, it exactly tries to seek an optional way of scholarly understanding between political antitheses.
Is the Armenian-Turkish Question a political or a scientific one? The answer depends on the perception. Without undermining the political complexity of the issue, VAT is a first step, and a scientific one. It has to be recognized that next to a very simply one way of understanding by the majority of Turks and Armenians on the basis of presumed polarization, there is an international and confusing presentation of what had happened before, during and after WWI. This "state of the art" is indeed controversial and very much politicized.
Inanç Atýlgan (University of Vienna) and Garabet Moumdjian (University of California, Los Angeles), depending on the perception, one is an antagonist and the other one a protagonist, and they are challenging their respective mainstreams as VAT members. Being aware of the necessity of facing mutual and common history, not only the international community but especially Armenian and Turkish scholars have to seriously and systematically get involved with this Question.