{"id":16715,"date":"2010-02-05T18:37:47","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T18:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=16715"},"modified":"2023-04-06T15:48:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T12:48:16","slug":"u-s-pressure-essential-for-turkish-armenian-normalization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/02\/05\/u-s-pressure-essential-for-turkish-armenian-normalization\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Pressure \u2018Essential\u2019 For Turkish-Armenian Normalization"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"Armenia — David Phillips, a U.S. scholar who chaired the former Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission, presents the Armenian translation of his book in Yerevan, February 4, 2010.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
04.02.2010<\/div>\n
Emil Danielyan<\/div>\n

Stronger U.S. pressure on Turkey is essential for salvaging its fence-mending agreements with Armenia and the administration of President Barack Obama understands that, according to a renowned U.S. scholar who was actively involved in Turkish-Armenian reconciliation initiatives.<\/p>\n

\nIn an interview with RFE\/RL on Thursday, David Phillips also criticized Ankara\u2019s linkage between the implementation of those agreements and a Nagorno-Karabakh settlement. He dismissed Turkish claims that a recent ruling by the Armenian Constitutional Court ran counter to key provisions of the Turkish-Armenian \u201cprotocols\u201d signed in October.<\/p>\n

Phillips, who coordinated the work of the U.S.-sponsored Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC) in 2001-2004, further said that Armenia should not rush to walk away from the deal. But he stressed that its ratification by the Turkish parliament can not be \u201can open-ended process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf these protocols fall apart and there is a diplomatic train wreck, it will have a serious adverse effect on U.S.-Turkish relations,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd this comes at a time when the U.S. is seeking Turkey\u2019s cooperation on Iran, when Turkey is playing an increasingly important role in Afghanistan and during the wrap-up to redeployment from Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Obama administration knows full well that these protocols should go forward because it is in the interests of Turkey and Armenia. It is also in America\u2019s interests to keep the process moving forward so that U.S.-Turkish cooperation is in effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Analysts believe Washington will step up pressure on Ankara ahead of the April 24 annual commemoration of more than one million Armenians massacred in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1918. Obama avoided describing the massacres as genocide in an April 2009 statement, implicitly citing the need not to undermine the ongoing Turkish-Armenian rapprochement.<\/p>\n

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg discussed the issue with President Serzh Sarkisian and Foreign Minisiter Edward Nalbandian during a one-day visit to Yerevan on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Phillips, who currently runs a conflict resolution program at the American University in Washington, declined to speculate on just how strong that pressure will be. \u201cBut I do believe that unless the Obama administration presses the Turks at the highest level, the likelihood of the protocols being ratified in Ankara will decrease,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Phillips described Steinberg\u2019s visit as a \u201ca clear indication that the Obama administration understands the importance of this matter and the need to raise the profile of its involvement.\u201d \u201cAnd its efforts to use its leverage should intensify in the near future,\u201d he said. \u201cThe U.S. needs to be actively engaged in this process if it is going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. officials have already made clear that they disagree with Ankara\u2019s highly negative reaction to the Armenian court ruling. While upholding the legality of the protocols, the Constitutional Court ruled last month that they can not stop Yerevan seeking a broader international recognition of the Armenian genocide.<\/p>\n

Turkish leaders claim that the court thereby prejudged the findings of a Turkish-Armenian \u201csubcommission\u201d of history experts which the two governments have agreed to set up. The Armenian side insists, however, that the panel would not be tasked with determining whether the mass killings and deportations of Ottoman Armenians constituted genocide. It says the Turks are deliberately exploiting the ruling to justify their reluctance to ratify the protocols.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing in the [relevant protocol] annex that says that the subcommission is going to be considering the veracity of the Armenian genocide,\u201d agreed Phillips. \u201cIf those questions are being raised, they are being raised as a way of deflecting the focus of discussions and creating conditions whereby Armenia is blamed for any breakdown of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Turks ever thought that signing the protocols would bring an end to international recognition efforts, they were wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cThey should have known that from the beginning and I\u2019m quite sure that they do know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commenting on Turkish leaders\u2019 repeated statements making protocol ratification conditional on the signing of a Karabakh agreement acceptable to Azerbaijan, Phillips said, \u201cThe protocols are very clear. There is no mention in the protocols themselves or in any of the annexes about Nagorno-Karabakh.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Serzh Sarkisian has publicly threatened to annul the agreements unless Ankara drops the Karabakh linkage \u201cwithin a reasonable time frame.\u201d Some of his aides have spoken of late March as an unofficial deadline for their unconditional implementation.<\/p>\n

In Phillips\u2019s view, walking away from the deal at this juncture would be a \u201cmistake.\u201d But he acknowledged that the Armenian government can not wait for Turkish ratification for much longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that for domestic political reasons, this can\u2019t be an open-ended process, and April 24, as the anniversary of the Armenian genocide, has been put forward as a deadline,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether or not April 24 is a deadline is something for the Armenian government to decide. But there clearly needs to be an end point.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, suggested Phillips, Sarkisian should formally submit the protocols to Armenia\u2019s parliament \u201cwithout necessarily calling for a vote.\u201d \u201cThen the onus of responsibility for a potential diplomatic breakdown would rest with Ankara,\u201d he reasoned.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

Armenia — Armenian-language copies of Unsilencing the Past, a book on the Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission written by U.S. scholar David Phillips.<\/p><\/div>\n

Phillips spoke to RFE\/RL in Yerevan where he arrived earlier on Thursday to present the newly published Armenian translation of his 2005 book, \u201cUnsilencing the Past,\u201d that gives a detailed account of TARC\u2019s largely confidential activities. The panel of Turkish and Armenian retired diplomats and prominent public figures was set up in 2001 at the U.S. State Department\u2019s initiative and with the tacit approval of the authorities in Ankara and Yerevan.<\/p>\n

TARC repeatedly called for the unconditional establishment of diplomatic relations between the two states and opening of their border before being disbanded in 2004. It is also famous for commissioning a study on the events of 1915 from the New York-based International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). In a report released in February 2003, ICTJ concluded that the Armenian massacres \u201cinclude all of the elements of the crime of genocide\u201d as defined by a 1948 United Nations convention.<\/p>\n

But the report also said, to the dismay of nationalist groups in Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora, that the Armenians can not use the convention for demanding material or other compensation from Turkey. Former U.S. President George W. Bush repeatedly cited the ICTJ study in his April 24 statements.<\/p>\n

Phillips hailed the study as a potential blueprint for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. \u201cThe full benefit of that finding has yet to be fully understood and materialized,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Phillips also credited TARC with laying the groundwork for the unprecedented thaw in Turkish-Armenian relations that began shortly after Sarkisian took office in April 2008. \u201cThe rapprochement that\u2019s underway today would never have occurred in this time frame if TARC hadn\u2019t existed,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of TARC\u2019s recommendations are now being put into effect.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

https:\/\/www.azatutyun.am\/a\/1949005.html<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armenia — David Phillips, a U.S. scholar who chaired the former Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission, presents the Armenian translation of his book in Yerevan, February 4, 2010. 04.02.2010 Emil Danielyan Stronger U.S. pressure on Turkey is essential for salvaging its fence-mending agreements with Armenia and the administration of President Barack Obama understands that, according to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":783644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,89,34],"tags":[2129],"class_list":["post-16715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenia","category-turkey","category-usa","tag-turkey-and-armenia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16715","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=16715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}