Turkey dodged yet another bullet in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday when a resolution "recognizing" the Armenian "genocide" failed to reach the floor for a vote. Had Resolution 252 gone before legislators, it, in all likelihood, would have passed. That is exactly what the powerful Armenian-American lobby is determined to make happen. And that is a reality Ankara must either be prepared to accept or prevent by normalizing relations with Armenia.
There is no doubt that something horrible happened to over 1.5 million Armenians in eastern Anatolia in the spring of 1915. It is a vexed issue, fraught with intense emotion. Armenians and their sympathizers maintain that it was genocide. It is a charge the Turks deny.
Given that the Turkish government hasn't made public archived material on the matter or been willing to debate the issue, it is difficult to defend them. The heart wrenching stories of Armenians who survived deportations, starvation and executions make it impossible to do so. There is an overdue need to access Ottoman archives where the world -- and not one side -- can make a more informed conclusion. That would upset any effort for a Congressional resolution. It would also be more in line with Ankara's "zero problems" foreign policy.
Because Turkey is facing, according to its foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, "pressure to assume an important regional role," the country has made it a priority to "carry out a careful foreign policy." Open and good diplomatic relations with all of Turkey's neighbors is its underpinning. While that has happened with Syria and Iran, it has not with Armenia. That must change.
In 2009, Turkey and Armenia had launched talks intended to normalize relations. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with the Swiss government, was actively involved. Among the things that were brokered was the inclusion of a clause that would have had historians examine the evidence from 1915. Unfortunately, the Turks scuttled the negotiations that otherwise would have been a remarkable step that could have avoided yesterday's close call, and any other ones in the future.
Passionate Armenian-Americans have lobbied to label Ottoman actions as genocide for decades. Protected by the Pentagon, the National Security Council and the Israeli lobby, the Turks, NATO's second most powerful members, have managed to avoid the Armenian question entirely. Since adopting a more activist approach to regional Middle Eastern affairs, which has included closer ties to Tehran and championing the end of Palestinian isolation in Gaza, Ankara is no longer shielded by anyone.
Without a strong ally on Capitol Hill, U.S.-Turkish relations have hit an all-time low. Resolution 252 has found the perfect moment to rear its head. There is little political capital to defend a country everyone inside the beltway considers "lost." It is an issue that will most certainly resurface in the next Congressional session. It is unlikely to continue to come out in Turkey's favor.
That the House resolution labels the Ottoman Empire's actions "genocide" does not make it so. It is a point of semantics, in which there are no legal ramifications. It is nothing more than political pandering to a very effective ethnic lobby.
Still, it is a pandering that the U.S. and Turkey cannot afford. Much is at stake in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, where Turkey has lent Washington tremendous and reliable support; support Washington is keen to continue. Sadly, its policymakers are no longer in a position to rescue Turkey at the eleventh hour. Nor should Turkish policy makers want them to. Turkey's new independent diplomacy puts the responsibility of tackling the Armenian question in its own hands.
To start the process, Turkey must normalize relations with Armenia, which have never been formally established. Though the two shared an open border when Armenia declared independence from the USSR in 1991, it was closed down in 1993 over a border dispute Armenia has with its other Turkic neighbor, Azerbaijan. Turkish-Armenian reconciliation must include the examination of historical records of 1915. Armenians and Turks deserve to know the truth about the events that took place at that time.
Armenians are eager to reconcile with the Turks. The BBC reports "most people in Armenia feel their landlocked country has been too isolated since the Turkish border closed and are ready for it to reopen." Armenia, which continues to suffer from the legacy of the Soviet planned economy, has remained "underdeveloped." Yerevan wants to do business with its economically powerful Turkish neighbor, its only real link to the West. Many deals are already underway. Flights between the two countries are packed with businessmen signing agreements to trade and collaborate.
Turkey was able to avoid a relationship with Armenia and the Armenian question for years. Armed with a bold, new foreign policy, a strong economy and an Armenian neighbor ready to engage, Turkey has what it needs not only to permanently frustrate Armenian-American efforts for a "genocide" resolution, but, more importantly, to set the truth about 1915 straight. Nothing could prove Turkey's capacity for true global and mature leadership more.
Follow Elmira Bayrasli on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@endeavoringE
5. It is highly unlikely that the Ottoman Empire would be involved in a genocide act as a state. Several nations lived under the Ottoman rule for hundreds of years preserving their culture and religion. All of what happened at that time should be interpreted in the context of the First World War. The conditions of the First World War were horrible. Unfortunately, the leaders of the Armenian population chose to combine their faith with Russia. Armenian militia collaborated with Russians and killed thousands of Turkish civilians too.
6. After the First World War, many Armenians remained in Turkey and lived their lives as first-class Turkish citizens. They became influential people: politicians, doctors, and teachers in the modern Turkish Republic. If there was a systematic effort to exterminate all Armenians from the surface of the earth, how come many Armenians still live in the borders of Turkey? The mass-killings of both Turk and Armenians were a result of war conditions; they were not supported by any ideology at all, which is an important signature of the genocides seen in the 20th century.
1. There was no concept of ‘genocide’ at that time. Unfortunately, many civilians were killed by armies or by the other civilians in various wars throughout the history until after the Second World War. Hundreds thousands of Turks were killed by the Armenian militia and by the Armenian civilians too. On many platforms, Turkey expressed her regrets that these unfortunate incidents took place during the war conditions.
2. The current Turkish Republic or the current Turkish generation does not bear any responsibility for whatever happened during the rule of the former state Ottaman Empire. The founders of the Modern Turkish Republic fought actively against the Ottaman Sultan to start the new Turkish Republic. Turkish independence and territory were won after Ottaman Empire collapsed at the end of the 1st WW.
3. The U.S., Armenia, or the Armenians in the U.S. or other places are not in any position to act like a moral authority against any other state or other people. People are people everywhere. There is no reason why Turks should be any better or worse. Some now talk about the US Congress passing a resolution to acknowledge this so-called genocide. With the same token, the Congress should pass resolutions to recognize the Native American (or Indian) genocide committed by Americans. Such charges are only pressed against Turkey to gain political advantage because Turkey is a developing country; not a super power.
Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey of Switzerland met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu prior to the signing ceremony and told him that the Armenian party could object to the text of Davutoglu's speech since there were some differences in texts of the parties.
Armenian party felt uneasy about some parts of Davutoglu's speech in which he stressed that the Caucasus should become a region of peace and tranquillity and the Upper Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia should be resolved. Armenian party has been defending from the very beginning that normalization of Turkey-Armenia relations and the Upper Karabakh dispute were two separate issues.
Turkish party turned down Armenian party's demand about exclusion of those expressions from Davutoglu's speech, and objected to the text of Nalbandian's speech in return.
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/90873/historical-protocols-signed-by-turkey-and-armenia.html
Does the above statement seem stupid to you?
It is clear Armenians died at the hands of Turks. That doesn't mean the Turkish government deliberately engaged in ethnic cleansing, but denial of the event itself is just silly.
The Turkish government has records it refuses to share. That, more than any whining by an oppressed minority, makes their claims believable.
In the Harrowing of the North, England's current ruler's ancestors wiped out most of the population of northern England. The United States dispatched indigenous peoples more than once. No one alive today doesn't have ancestors who committed genocide. Man up and admit to your history. Perhaps then the future can be different.
Turkey was one of the first nations to recognize the nation of Armenia. It broke off relations with Armenia when Armenia began ethnically cleansing the Nagorno-Karabagh of its Azeri Turk population.
It would be the equivalent of getting the US government to declare G Washinton a war criminal - even if its true it will have bad consequences to their national identity. So they deny it. The pratical solution is to call it a "tragedy" make reparations - and improve the lives of living Arminians, and let the turks save face and their own sence of national identity.
Time and again throughout history people come up with the political solution of appointing a wise and just man to rule them. It never ends well. It's important to learn that even the best of men are fallible.
Learning what really happened is important so we can at least try to avoid prior mistakes. Don't candy coat history.
On the surface, this would seem unremarkable. As victims of the Holocaust, Jews might be expected to stand beside the Armenians and their tragedy. After all, the massacres and death marches across Anatolia during the fog of World War I became a model for Hitler himself.
But this sudden embrace of the Armenian Genocide actually marks a shameless turnaround for the major American Jewish organizations. For decades, they have helped Turkey cover up its murderous past. Each year, the Israel lobby in the U.S. has played a quiet but pivotal role in pressuring Congress, the State Department and successive presidents to defeat simple congressional resolutions commemorating the 1.5 million Armenian victims."
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/06/16/israel_lobby_genocide_armenia
I don't think it's appropriate for the U.S. congress to take up this issue. Turkey needs to come to grip with its past, but the U.S. hardly has the moral authority to throw stones on this issue. We were still finishing off the Native Americans when this incident took place.
Still, learning history gives us a chance to avoid past mistakes. Turkey's refusal to acknowledge this incident along with their aligning with aggressive countries like Iran should make Armenia very nervous.
In fact, the PM of Turkey wrote to his Armenian counterpart in 2005 and proposed they convene a commission of all relevant scholars to study, research and review all evidence, including documents and archives from third parties like Russia, France and England, concerning the events that occurred in southeastern Anatolia during WWI.
Armenia, however, refused to respond. Its position is that it doesn't need to prove any of its allegations. So there's your "modern" view of Armenian jurisprudence: no evidence, trial, jury or judge required to convict and entire nation of the greatest crime against humanity.
PS: Ermeni means Armenian in Turkish.
Turkish Government has proposed many times for a joint Turkish Armenian historical experts to look through the archives and take this issue out of the political arena. Armenians have refused, and they have NOT opened their archives (including the one in Boston).
Indeed Turkish government has not debated the so called genocide claims, because it is not up to governments to debate, but historians to examine the facts.
Indeed very many Armenians have suffered around 1915, so we all sympathize with them. On the other hand Armenians never mention their treachery that lead to their tragedy, and the killing of so many Turkish and Kurdish people living in that region by the Armenian terrorists prior to 1915.
Current Armenian government, with the help of Russian Army, has occupied 20 % of Azerbaijani lands, created 800,000 refugees, and refuses to obey UN Security Council resolutions. A principled Turkish Government should not reward this aggression by normalizing relations with Armenia. Neither should the US government.
Yet we, (US Congress) angers our ally Azerbaijan (whom we need for Afghanistan logistics, and the West needs for energy) by not appointing our Ambassador to Azerbaijan and coddling the corrupt Armenian government that is selling arms to Iran and ignoring Security Council resolutions.
In respones, the Turkish ministry responsible for cataloging the Ottoman archives offered to donate $20M to the Armenian archives so that Armenia could catalog them.... but of course Armenia never responded to the offer and continues to keep the archives closed.
http://louisville.edu/a-s/history/turks/Documents... http://www.devletarsivleri.gov.tr/kitap/kitap.asp...
Even, Armenian historian Ara Sarafian from Gomitas Institute and Hilmar Kaiser searched them (www.sarigelinbelgeseli.com
Despite this situation, why are the Armenian archieves including the one in Zoryan Armenian Institute in Boston closed? Both Turkish government and Turkish History Foundation offered the Armenians to open these archieves; even offered financial support but refused again. (http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/418517.asp). Instead Zoryan Institute provided finance for Taner Akçam who advocated the Armenian claims in Minnesota University until recently.
Why have the Armenians always been terribly afraid of historical joint commissions?
3) If a genocide had really occured, why did Brian Ardouny of the Armenian Assembly of America announce ‘We don’t need to prove the genocide historically, because it has already been accepted politically’?
4) Why did the chief of the Armenian Archives in Armenia tell that all they were interested was the world’s public opinion not the achieves.
5) Why did Sarafian, the head of the London-based Gomidas Institute, say Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s offer to Armenia to establish a commission of historians to resolve the Armenian issue was positive, but Armenia was the wrong address, because freedom of expression for historians in Armenia was limited and the genocide issue has become a political tool. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/domestic/10426...
6) Why have the Armenians not admitted to an international court yet?
’Our objective is to have the matter investigated by historians and experts. We are ready to accept the decision of the joint historical commission. We agree for different professionals from various countries to be involved” the Turkish president Abdullah Gul recently said. But, the Armenians were very angry onthis idea.
In an interview with Armenian Reporter, Prof Richard Hovannisian from California University and the father of Raffi Hovannisian, the first Foreign Minister of Armenia, said: ‘It is very dangerous to establish such an historical commission…because according to 1948 United Nations’s Genocide Convention, a deliberate and planned massacre is mandatory. The Turks will accept that nearly 200-300 thousand Armenian died; but nobody can call them deliberate acts. In Turkish Archives the Turks have the telegrams sent from vilayets about the then Armenian upraisals and documents about the Armenians who fled from the Ottoman Army. So, the Turkish historians will accuse the Armenians and say that all these events were a reaction to what the Armenians did and were not deliberate’ http://www.kophaber.com/news_detail.php?id=4726
Please ask these questions to understand in this play:
1)Why did the Armenian historian Sarafyan, who accepted the invitation of the then chief of Turkish History Foundation, Halacoglu, for cooperation to investigate Harput events, abandon the project, after talking the Armenian diaspora?
2) The Ottoman and Turkish archieves are open. http://www.ankara.edu.tr/english/yazi.php?yad=36. http://www.tsk.mil.tr/ENGLISH/8_FRAGMENTS_FORM