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On October 21, while introducing the Armenia-Turkey Protocols to the Turkish Parliament for ratification, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu exposed his government\u2019s true intentions.<\/p>\n
Davutoglu stated that Armenia\u2019s acceptance of the agreement, calling for the study of historical archives, indicated that Armenians no longer insisted on their unilateral interpretation of history. He further stated that the Protocols safeguarded Turkey\u2019s territorial integrity from any future Armenian claims by reconfirming the present borders based on past treaties, and that the agreement would contribute to the \u201cliberation of Azerbaijan\u2019s territories,\u201d meaning Karabagh (Artsakh).<\/p>\n
While it is understandable that Davutoglu would try to put the best possible spin on the Protocols in order to secure their ratification by the Turkish Parliament, the three advantages he cited are exactly the reasons why most Armenians have so vehemently objected to this agreement.<\/p>\n
As expected, Davutoglu was severely criticized by the opposition parties in Parliament that reject the Protocols. The most unexpected attack, however, came from Selahattin Demirtas, head of the Kurdish faction (DTP) in Parliament, who took the government to task for distorting and denying the facts of \u201cthe Armenian massacres.\u201d Such a criticism has never been voiced before in the Turkish Parliament. Demirtas brazenly continued: \u201cWe believe that we now need to address an issue that has caused so much suffering to the Armenian people — one of the key problems facing the Republic of Turkey. A hundred years ago, the Ittihad Party, with a policy of Islamizing and Turkifying the entire Anatolia, sought to eliminate the non-Muslims, particularly the Armenian people, from these lands through exile, expulsion, deportation and massacres.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ignoring the insults hurled by members of the ruling party (AKP) and others, Demirtas condemned the government\u2019s policy of denial that had the aim of escaping the consequences of this \u201ctragedy,\u201d prompting the creation of \u201ca fake history.\u201d He noted that the persecutions and massacres of Armenians were presented as if they never happened. \u201cWe need to speak about all of these things and correct the record,\u201d Demirtas concluded.<\/p>\n
Immediately after addressing the Turkish Parliament, Davutoglu flew to Baku in order to quell the Azerbaijani uproar over the signing of the Protocols. Realizing the depth of their anger, Davutoglu was forced to make several outlandish declarations: \u201cAzerbaijan\u2019s lands are sacred for us and their liberation is Turkey\u2019s utmost priority. We will not change our position even if the sky falls down to earth!\u201d He also assured them that \u201cif need be, 72 million Turks are ready to die in Azerbaijan!\u201d Azerbaijan\u2019s leaders, however, were not too impressed with Davutoglu\u2019s highly inflated pronouncements. They continued to shut down mosques financed by Turkey, removed Turkey\u2019s flags from a monument for Turkish martyrs in Baku, and threatened to raise the price of gas sold to Turkey.<\/p>\n
While Davutoglu had his hands full in Baku, a news flash from Washington came to reshuffle Ankara\u2019s political cards. A Resolution was introduced in the U.S. Senate that called for the reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide. This unexpected development sent a powerful message not only to Turkey, but also to the leaders of Armenia, Russia, the European Union and the United States.<\/p>\n
To their dismay, Turkish leaders discovered that the Protocols would not put an end to the pursuit of recognition and justice for the crime of genocide committed by their ancestors.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s Ambassador to Washington Nabi Sensoy was alarmed by this unexpected development and wasted no time in condemning the Senate Resolution during a Voice of America interview. He called the timing of the Resolution \u201cregrettable\u201d and \u201cunfortunate,\u201d coming just one day after the introduction of the Protocols in the Turkish Parliament. The esteemed Ambassador failed to indicate, however, when would be a better time to introduce such a Resolution!<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s leaders are now caught in the horns of a dilemma. If they rush to ratify the Protocols in order to prevent the House and Senate Resolutions from gaining political support, they would alienate their oil-rich Azerbaijani \u201cbrothers\u201d for not having delivered on their promises on Karabagh. On the other hand, if Turkish leaders delay ratification until after April 24 — waiting for Armenia to make concessions on Artsakh — they would run the risk of having either the House or the Senate or both pass the Genocide Resolutions. Since 2010 is an election year for all House Members and a third of the Senate, members of Congress are usually more responsive to their constituents, raising the likelihood of the passage of the Genocide Resolutions. Furthermore, even if Pres. Obama has no intention of keeping his campaign promise on the Armenian Genocide, he would feel compelled to pressure the Turks to ratify the Protocols before April 24, with or without concessions from Armenia on Artsakh, in order to provide a face-saving cover for his next \u201cMeds Yeghern\u201d statement!<\/p>\n
Therefore, if Armenia\u2019s leaders stand firm on their repeated public commitments not to make concessions on Artsakh linked to the Protocols, they would be in the driver\u2019s seat in terms of controlling Ankara\u2019s next steps.<\/p>\n
Pres. Sargsyan must also keep his solemn promise not to allow the Protocols to undermine Armenia\u2019s efforts for genocide recognition. A good start to demonstrate the Armenian President\u2019s resolve on this issue is to send a letter to the leadership of the House and the Senate, encouraging them to pass the pending Resolutions. It should be noted that the Turkish government has never hesitated to use its considerable political muscle to lobby against past Congressional Resolutions on the Armenian Genocide. Sending a simple letter of support to the U.S. Congress is the least Pres. Sargsyan could do!<\/p>\n
The Armenian government\u2019s backing for the newly-introduced Senate Resolution would also send a message to Washington, Moscow and beyond that Armenia is not giving up on its historic rights, even though it is being pressured to make major concessions in other areas.<\/p>\n
It is high time for Armenian leaders to reassess the nation\u2019s difficult predicament and take all necessary measures to avoid further missteps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On October 21, while introducing the Armenia-Turkey Protocols to the Turkish Parliament for ratification, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu exposed his government\u2019s true intentions. Davutoglu stated that Armenia\u2019s acceptance of the agreement, calling for the study of historical archives, indicated that Armenians no longer insisted on their unilateral interpretation of history. He further stated that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":49467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[145,1571,120,204,1153,1018],"class_list":["post-15801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","tag-barack-obama","tag-ahmet-davutoglu","tag-gulen","tag-nagorno-karabakh","tag-politics","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}