Why WATS is successful
From an article by Gerard Libaridian in Birikim (Istanbul, May 2005)

… WATS was initiated in 2000 to see if a common language and historical framework can be established; a language and framework within which the events in question could be looked at as historical phenomena and dealt with as objectively as possible by scholars whose intellectual integrity and scholarly rigor are more important than their ethnic background. The project is independent of any government and its gatherings are supported by academic institutions and individuals.

… Involving at first a dozen or so Turkish, Armenian, and Western scholars, the total number of those engaged in the process is now close to 200, but no more than 50 participants and any time, including a few observers. It has attracted many on both sides who at first objected to the process or were reluctant to participate.
The point about WATS is that the process is based on research and exploration of themes, regardless of the position taken by any participant on the characterization of events. The Workshop consists of formal papers on specific themes related to the waning decades of the Ottoman, on Ottoman-Armenian relations preceding, during, and following the First World War as well as on comparative studies, followed by discussions. From its tense beginnings, the Workshop project has now matured to a healthy interchange that inspires new research and focuses on causes and consequences of events. The impact of the Workshop on the understanding and interpretation of the history of Turkish-Armenian relations and eventually on public perceptions of the past in Turkey, Armenia, and the Turkish and Armenian Diasporas will be slow but significant.

WATS seeks a thorough understanding of the past, without which reconciliation can be sought only through circumvention or negotiation. The understanding it seeks transcends the battles over facts and figures. Because it acted on clear distinctions between goodwill, policy, and scholarship and on its modest goals but with a clear view of intellectual integrity, it has been able not only to survive but also reach out. Unlike some of the other projects that have sought or were inspired by official concerns, the organizers of WATS believe that the best thing governments can do to help in this process is to leave them alone to pursue the modest yet well grounded goals they have set for themselves. And unlike others that buckled under the pressure due to the initial, reflexive reactions from certain segments from both sides, those involved in the WATS process have been able to maintain their momentum and expand their efforts simply because there were sustained by the clarity of thought and moral courage of individual scholars who care about the past, the present and the future in a different way.