In his op-ed of Oct. 11 titled “Prospects for Turkish-U.S. ties not the best,” Semih İdiz, a fellow columnist for the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, elaborated on how the Armenian issue has come to affect U.S.-Turkey relations.
According to İdiz, “the general belief in Washington, and particularly in the U.S. Congress, is that Turkey negotiated the Zurich Protocols with Armenia in bad faith, not to actually move ahead in terms of Turkish-Armenian ties, but to prevent President Obama from using the ‘G word’ in his annual April 24 message earlier this year.”
I have serious objections to such arguments and I want to share them with my American friends. First and foremost, the Turkish government did not act in bad faith. On the contrary, there was a sincere good will, actually a kind of naivety that made them think that the protocols would finally pave the way for a normalization of relations with Armenia.
It was, however, the Armenian Constitutional Court’s January 2010 decision that profoundly shocked Ankara. As you will well remember, the court declared that the interpretation and application of the protocols should be in compliance with the Armenian constitution and paragraph 11 of the Armenian Declaration of Independence, which states: “The Republic of Armenia stands in support of the task of achieving international recognition of the 1915 Genocide in Ottoman Turkey and Western Armenia.”
In the view of Ankara, this reasoning contradicted fundamental aspects of the protocols. Both countries’ historians, through a sub-commission envisaged in the protocols, were supposed to discuss what had really happened in 1915. But the court’s decision made it clear to Ankara that it had been too optimistic. In fact, it was not only a precondition but also an ultimatum.
Turkish authorities lost no time in sharing their reservations and concerns with Washington and clearly stated that under these circumstances, the protocols could not pass ratification in the Turkish Parliament. Indeed, subsequent to this decision, voices expressing skepticism among members of Parliament grew louder than ever. Yet ignoring these sensitivities, Washington declared it viewed “the court decision as a positive step forward in the ratification process.”
In light of this background, to claim that the Turkish government negotiated the protocols to prevent President Obama from using the “G word” is nonsense. Besides, the number of U.S. states that have passed resolutions supporting the Armenian allegations is over 40. To be honest, like many people in Turkey I personally am not really interested in whether the U.S. President uses the G word or not. Turks are indeed fed up with the way this genocide issue is being frequently used as an effective means of blackmailing the Turkish government.
Having said that, I suggest to my American friends that they put pressure on Armenia to change its mindset. I will give an example in that regard. As a gesture to our Armenian citizens and Armenia, the Turkish government restored a historic church in Akdamar with a formal opening held in September. The religious ceremony was attended by Armenians from Armenia and their diaspora.
Elaborating on Turkish-Armenian relations, in an op-ed titled “Armenian-Turkish relations depend on people, not protocols,” Richard Giragosian, the director of the Yerevan-based Armenian Center for National and International Studies, just recently wrote about this gesture of the Turkish government, “…the long-awaited event turned out quite differently than expected. In many ways, the ceremony was a disappointment. It was also a missed opportunity.”
Do you know why it was a disappointment or missed opportunity for Giragosian? Because, in his words, “the ceremony was held in a church with no cross.”
Turkish-Armenian relations indeed depend on people, not protocols…
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