At about this time every year, the Turkish government engages in political antics, the purpose of which is to counter any incremental success Armenians have achieved in their quest for recognition of the Turkish genocide of 1.5 million Armenians.
The Governments for the past 40 years have not taken this fabricated accusation (without any legal or documented foundation)…nor the absurdity of killing 1.5 million out of a total of 1.3 or 1.4 million population but leaving a balance of 1.4 million living at the end of 1921. Somebody is deliberately lying!
During April 1915, under the guise of World War I, the Turkish government condemned the entire Armenian citizenry under its jurisdiction, and some of the neighbouring lands, to extermination. The crime and denial of genocide isn’t a game, but international relations is a contest.
Surely genocide is a very serious crime, which must be substantiated by the verdict of an authorized international tribunal with legal accusations, proceedings, defence and valid verdict. The writer, if he had read just a tiny bit of Armenian historians, he would have known that revolutionary battalions or volunteers have been active even before the war started cutting the supply and communication lines and they were supplied by villagers obligatorily. They and their supporters had to be removed for military necessities since Armenians in the East had already revolted, not only assisted Russians in their attacks and defences but also occupied and declared the Republic of Van in May 191… before the Relocation Law was enforced. We have documentary evidence that 80.000 Muslims of Van have been killed and/or made flee, and that the Muslim section of the city was levelled to zero ground. The writer can still see it today if he visits the place.
In past years, major U.S. defence contractors have pressured members of Congress not to undertake any vote for genocide recognition, so as not to “offend” their Turkish customers. Also, past U.S. secretaries of state have either individually or collectively pleaded a similar story to members of Congress, recommending that any recognition of genocide would anger the Turks.
The U.S. Congress is unaware of their older resolutions dated 1919, 1920, and 1922 contradicting today!
The U.S. Congress regularly reaffirms or otherwise memorializes historical events, including the near-destruction of the Native Americas and the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews. Official U.S. recognition, and to a similar extent an Israeli recognition, of the genocide of the Armenians, would ease the way for Armenian reparations. Turkey is becoming more confident of its role globally and in the region. It endeavours to assert influence by representing itself as a big brother to regional Muslim states. Turkey finds itself in a position from which it can simultaneously divert the attention of the Armenian Diaspora while providing face-saving excuses vis-a-vis engagement with Armenia for major powers to ignore Armenian demands for genocide recognition.
The author is unaware of the Nazi Armenian troops which contributed much to the Jewish Holocaust. Armenian demands are myths-fabrications without any dependable-valid documentation which surfaced after the 1960s to justify cause for “demands of restitution” for events that could not even have happened!
Since around 2003, Armenia and Turkey have been in deliberations with the goal of establishing diplomatic relations and opening their common border. This border was unilaterally shut by Turkey in 1993 as Armenian forces were succeeding in securing the region of Nagorno-Karabagh from Azerbaijani rule. “The Protocol on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey” was officially signed and simultaneously announced in Berne, Yerevan, and Ankara on Aug. 31, 2009. On the heels of this announcement, Turkey attached preconditions to any Turkish ratification. As a result, this document is all but dead, even though the signed protocol passed legal approval by Armenia’s Constitutional Court. It was rather presumptuous for Turkey to have set post-facto preconditions. This lack of Turkish resolve allowed the Armenian president, Serge Sarkisian, the latitude to take a tougher stance on the genocide issue. On March 24, 2010, at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in the Syrian desert at Der Zor, Sarkisian gave a hard-hitting speech against the policies of the Turkish government, calling it the last stop on the Armenian death marches. He called Der Zor the Armenian Auschwitz. As Sun Tzu said, “Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”
The writer justifies the sudden attack and land grabbing from Azerbaijan under the submission of military bases and borders to Russia! The border was closed because of this attack by a neighbour against another neighbour. The author also approves the attack on the Armenian Parliament and change of power by force of the Daahnakist humpabets! The “well-wishing protocols” written on sand, were born dead because they were not based on historical facts. If Mr Sarkissian had read a little history, he should have known the visit of Zenoıp Bezjian to Morgenthau in September 1915, having returned from Zor(because Catholics and Protestants were exempted at the end of August and permitted to return to their homes). Zenop Bezjian had told the Ambassador that they were not attacked or something and those they had already settled there doing business! As usual, he was asking some money for the coming winter.
On Feb. 7, 2011 in an article published in the Turkish newspaper Sabah, author Duygu Guvenc wrote that the Turkish minister of state, Egemen Bagis, after attending the Jan. 27, 2011 Holocaust Remembrance Day (a first for a Turkish state minister) in Istanbul, was instructed to subsequently attend Armenian April 24th activities. Apparently only Sabah reported this, although it was picked up by many Armenian media outlets. Since Guvenc’s article is still on an active website and has not been retracted, it appears to be an official trial balloon looking for any Armenian reaction. Alternatively, it could be Turkey’s first move in the 2011 genocide obfuscation gambit.
I cannot endorse the shallow comments of correspondents or politicians since they are rarely objective!
It is a challenge to suggest or predict Armenia’s reaction to this Turkish ploy because moves like these are not zero-sum, nor made in isolation. There is also a lack of information from ongoing diplomatic efforts, if they even exist, in whatever form. There are costs in making foreign policy decisions, and similarly, in not making them. Given the limited information available to us, what might an Armenian response be?
Turkish general elections are scheduled for this year. According to polls, the AK Party has been steadily gaining popularity. Currently, it enjoys a substantial lead over its nationalist contender, the CHP. AKP leaders may feel they can take a chance with bolder genocide obfuscation tactics considering such moves are coming at a time of transforming events in the region, placing such risky foreign policy moves out of media limelight in Turkey. This is not the case with citizens of Armenia or its diaspora, who view Turkish moves differently than official Yerevan. Turkey knows this and modulates its foreign policy moves associated with genocide denial, highlighting such nuances.
Genocide “treasure hunting” is as true as the “Treasure Island and John Silver”. Armenian writers in the USA instead of building fantasy land castles and finding themselves potent to tell others what they should do, they better give a hand to their fellow Armenians in Armenia and avoid their immigration to all neighbouring countries because “stomachs do not get full by swallowing palavers of hope”!
Foreign policy moves are based on extracting the maximum benefit from prevailing conditions. They are not based on right or wrong, good or bad, but rather on interests. We know the overarching Turkish interest is deferring accepting responsibility for the crime of genocide.
The author admits his principles in foreign policy, extraditing benefit and improper chances! This is a confession of solid Dashnakist or Diaspora policy… Shortage of decency, ethics and respect for others!
Armenia should immediately invite the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to attend the April 24th genocide commemoration at Armenia’s Genocide Memorial at Dzidzernagapert. Turkey should be given a specific time limit to respond or the invitation is pulled. The Turkish delegation can join the hundreds of thousands of Armenians who gather to commemorate the victims of the 1915 genocide. The Turkish delegation would be accorded the customary VIP protocol at the Dzidzernagapert Memorial and attend lectures by prominent scholars. If Turkey was bluffing, Armenia will not. Armenia thus forces Turkey not to attend a genocide commemoration in some obscure Armenian community out of shear embarrassment by refusing this invitation.
Do the diaspora or Armenian Government realize that they are “just a very small group of naughty screamers” always complaining and demanding something out of obscure justification and in doing so they assume that they are a very big nation, country or economical-political-strategic power. The total population of Armenians in the whole World is not even five million, this may just fill one-third of the “city of Istanbul”…
There are many scenarios that can be played out. As an exercise below, a simplistic flow of events that could characterize the 2011 genocide obfuscation season is suggested.
Yes, …scenarios…moves… wasting time again on impossible childish dreams! Some never learn! Too bad!
| S.S. Aya |