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Category: Armenian Question

“The great Turk is governing in peace twenty nations from different religions. Turks have taught to Christians how to be moderate in peace and gentle in victory.”Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary

  • Genocide, Karabakh issues cause fresh round of ‘diplomatic boxing’ between Yerevana and Ankara

    Genocide, Karabakh issues cause fresh round of ‘diplomatic boxing’ between Yerevana and Ankara

    By Naira Hayrumyan
    ArmeniaNow correspondent

    armenia turkeyA real “diplomatic boxing” match has started between Armenia and Turkey, and while formally the reason was the latest statement by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, it seems that Turkey is simply nervous because of growing international pressure.

    Meeting with some senior representatives of the Armenian community in the French city of Marseilles on December 7, President Sargsyan said: “One day the Turkish leadership will find the strength to reconsider its approaches towards the Armenian Genocide… Sooner or later Turkey, which considers itself a European country, will have leadership which will bow at Tsitsernakaberd.”

    The statement caused a stormy reaction from Turkey.

    Chairman of the Turkish Grand National Assembly Cemal Cicek said that “the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations entirely depends on the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.” Speaking at an event in Ankara commemorating Azerbaijan’s late leader Heydar Aliyev on December 12, Cicek accused the president of Armenia of organizing the “Khojalu tragedy” in Karabakh in 1992 in which Azerbaijan claims the Armenian military killed Azeri civilians – an accusation strongly denied by Armenians. “We all know who Serzh Sargsyan is. He is one of the authors of the Khojalu genocide,” Turkish media quoted Cicek as saying.

    For his part, Turkish State Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis said that Sargsyan went beyond the limits by making that statement. He stressed that the Armenian people cannot be strong “due to poverty and hunger”. As quoted by the Turkish Anadolu news agency, Bagis said that some Armenians were working in Turkey which showed “the sincerity of Turks.”

    An official response came from Armenia. Commenting on Turkey’s EU affairs minister, Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said: “Such a response from the mouth of an official responsible for the integration of Turkey into the European Union proves that today’s Turkey does not yet have the leadership befitting a European country, and some Turkish officials are not bearers of European values and espouse the mentality in the spirit of the worst traditions of the Ottoman Empire.”

    For his part, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov said that Cicek “repeated the legends of Azerbaijani propaganda about a million refugees and occupied territories.” “What a cynic one has to be to talk about occupation when your country has for decades occupied the territory of an EU member state (Cyprus)? To talk about genocide when your country has turned the denial of crimes against humanity into a state policy?!” said Sharmazanov.

    But international pressure on Turkey and at the same time on Azerbaijan seems to be gradually building up. The U.S. Senate is voting on Resolution 306, which calls on Turkey to return the confiscated Armenian, Greek and Assyrian church property.

    France’s position on Turkey’s membership in the EU has not changed, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirming that he would not approve Turkey’s entry bid.

    Also, in France a draft law criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide seems to have reached the homestretch. MPs from the French president’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party that has a parliamentary majority on December 8 submitted a bill to the legislative committee of the National Assembly aiming to criminalize the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

    And in her December 9 statement in connection with International Human Rights Day U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mentioned Azerbaijan, along with Zimbabwe, as one of the negative examples in the field of human rights and countries where there are political prisoners.

    via Armenia-Turkey: Genocide, Karabakh issues cause fresh round of ‘diplomatic boxing’ between Yerevana and Ankara – Genocide | ArmeniaNow.com.

  • Armenian supporters skeptical of ties between Turkey, Indian tribes

    Armenian supporters skeptical of ties between Turkey, Indian tribes

    Armenian supporters skeptical of ties between Turkey, Indian tribes

    By MICHAEL DOYLE

    McClatchy Newspapers

    The perennial political fighting between Armenian-Americans and Turkey has migrated to Indian country.

    In a diplomatically creative but controversial move, Turkey wants preferential access to start commercial ventures on selected U.S. tribal lands. In theory, tribes would get business and Turkey would gain friends.

    “We’re trying to build bridges with other communities,” G. Lincoln McCurdy, the president of the Turkish Coalition of America, said in an interview. “If this works, it would be good for everybody.”

    But not everybody thinks so. Lawmakers in states with large Armenian-American populations, such as California and New Jersey, think a legislative proposal that’s now before the House of Representatives extends an undeserved favor to a country still associated with a long-ago slaughter.

    “We could not let that pass … without some acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide,” Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., said.

    The bill in question would allow six Indian tribes to lease land to Turkish companies without securing the usual, often time-consuming Bureau of Indian Affairs approvals. The tribes would be selected competitively by the Interior Department, and would develop their own guidelines for leasing land him.

    In this Capitol Hill fight, regional loyalties and ethnic politics could matter more than party lines.

    When the House Natural Resources Committee approved the legislation Nov. 17 on a 27-15 vote, Costa and Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., united in opposition. The Democrat and the Republican represent portions of California’s Central Valley, which is heavily populated by Armenian-Americans.

    On the other side, bill supporter Republican Rep. Don Young is a longtime champion of his home state’s Alaska Natives. The bill’s author, conservative Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., is a member of the Chickasaw. Another supporter, liberal Democratic Rep. Jay Inslee of Washington state, is running for governor in that state, which is home to 103,000 American Indians.

    Like much that happens on Capitol Hill, the bill dubbed the Indian Tribal Trade and Investment Demonstration Project Act of 2011 rides atop multiple motives. It now goes to the full House for a vote.

    “It definitely broadens (Turkey’s) political base,” McCurdy said, “and it increases the opportunity for Turkish companies to establish operations in this country.”

    A broader political base, in turn, could aid Turkey in recurring Capitol Hill conflicts with Armenian-Americans. In raw population, Armenian-Americans widely outnumber Turkish-Americans. Turkey, though, enjoys considerable high-level clout as an important NATO country.

    Nearly every year, these competing forces are on display as lawmakers press for an Armenian genocide resolution that takes note of the massacres that took place during the Ottoman Empire’s dying days. The resolution routinely fails but keeps coming back; this year’s version has 84 House co-sponsors.

    It’s in this context that the Native American investment bill reflects Turkey’s cultivation of tribes.

    Over the past two years, Turkey has sponsored a number of visits by Indian leaders. In November 2010, for instance, it hosted some 20 Native Americans for a week, including representatives of Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Tribe and Washington state’s Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

    “This is the first foreign country that has shown interest in investing with – cooperation with – a tribe to improve their economic lot,” Young said at the House committee hearing Nov. 17.

    In a similar vein, Turkish universities sponsor scholarships for Native American students, and Turkish officials have met with Indian leaders in Los Angeles and Seattle. Last March, a top Turkish Trade Ministry official became the first foreign representative to speak at an annual Las Vegas conference on Native American economic development.

    “I have no idea why they’re being so nice to Native Americans,” Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said during the House hearing. “I’m sure there’s some bad underlying reason or something that they’re trying to gain.”

    via Armenian supporters skeptical of ties between Turkey, Indian tribes – KansasCity.com.

  • Sarkisian Urges Turkey To ‘Repent’

    Sarkisian Urges Turkey To ‘Repent’

    President Serzh Sarkisian has urged Turkey to “repent” for the World War One-era massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and expressed confidence that Ankara will eventually recognize them as genocide.

    France - President Serzh Sarkisian speaks at an official reception in Marseille, 7Dec2011.
    France – President Serzh Sarkisian speaks at an official reception in Marseille, 7Dec2011.

    “We believe that Turkey must repent,” he said during a visit to France’s second largest city of Marseille late on Wednesday. “That is neither a precondition nor a desire to exact revenge. Turkey must come face to face with its history.”

    “One day Turkey’s leadership will find the strength to reassess its approaches to the Armenian Genocide,” Sarkisian said, speaking at an official reception organized in his honor by Marseille’s Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin and attended by prominent members of the local Armenian community.

    “Sooner or later Turkey, which considers itself a European country, will have a truly European leadership that will bow its head at the Tsitsernakabert [genocide memorial in Yerevan,]” claimed the Armenian leader. “The sooner the better, but that is up to the Turkish people.”

    There was no immediate reaction to the remarks from Ankara which vehemently denies that some 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Turks in 1915-1918.

    France – President Serzh Sarkisian speaks at an official reception in Marseille, 7Dec2011.

    ​​Successive Turkish governments have said that Armenians died in much smaller numbers and as a result of civil strife, rather than a premeditated government effort to exterminate a key Christian minority in the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

    Turkish leaders reacted angrily after French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged them to stop denying the genocide during an October visit to Armenia. “Collective denial is even worse than individual denial,” Sarkozy said after laying flowers at the Tsitsernakabert memorial. He also implicitly threatened to enact a law that would make Armenian genocide denial a crime in France.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip accused Sarkozy of playing the anti-Turkish card to secure reelection next year and warned of serious damage to relations between France and Turkey.

    By contrast, Sarkisian was full of praise for the French leader. “We must simply be grateful to the wise president of this beautiful country,” he told the mostly French-Armenian audience.

    In his speech, Sarkisian did not mention the future of the Turkish-Armenian normalization agreements signed two years ago. Earlier this year, he threatened to withdraw Yerevan’s signature from the agreements if Ankara continues to make their parliamentary ratification contingent on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

    via Sarkisian Urges Turkey To ‘Repent’.

  • Turkey condemned French Senate

    Turkey condemned French Senate

    franceAccording to Turkish media Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a message and expressed his dissatisfaction over French Senate legal issues committee decision on criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial. The resolution was accepted by the French committee accepted the resolution on December 7.

    Turkish MFA hoped that these steps won’t continue and added that these steps damaged Turkish-French relations. Turkey also noted that France would have a constructive investment in solving Armenian-Turkish historical conflict by dialogue.

    Remind that the draft will be discussed at French Senate soon.

    via Turkey condemned French Senate.

  • U.S. Again Tells Turkey To Honor Armenia Accords

    U.S. Again Tells Turkey To Honor Armenia Accords

    U.S. Vice President Joe Biden pressed Turkey to unconditionally ratify its Western-backed normalization agreements with Armenia “in the months ahead” during a visit to Ankara and Istanbul that ended at the weekend.

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    Turkish President Abdullah Gul (left) receives U.S. Vice President Joe Biden at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on December 2.

    A senior official from the administration of President Barack Obama said the fate of the two Turkish-Armenian protocols signed in 2009 was on the agenda of Biden’s talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and parliament speaker Cemil Cicek.

    The official said that during a breakfast meeting with Cicek on December 2, Biden “applauded the fact that the protocols for normalization with Armenia were back on the agenda of the [Turkish] parliament.”

    “And he expressed his hope that the parliament will be able to act on those protocols in the months ahead,” the official told U.S. journalists traveling with Biden.

    The U.S. vice president met Gul later on December 2 before traveling to Istanbul for separate talks with Erdogan held on December 4.

    “On Armenia, he said to the prime minister what he had raised with President Gul, as well — the hope that now that the protocols for normalization were back on the agenda of the parliament, that Turkey would be able to move on those protocols in the months ahead,” the Obama administration official said.

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conveyed a similar message to the Turkish government when she visited Istanbul in July.

    However, the Turkish leaders and Erdogan in particular have repeatedly made clear that the protocols will not be ratified by Turkey’s parliament before a breakthrough in international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

    Armenia rejects this precondition. President Serzh Sarkisian threatened earlier this year to withdraw Yerevan’s signature from the accord if the Turks stick to the Karabakh linkage.

    According to the Istanbul-based “Hurriyet Daily News,” Biden told Gul that Ankara should “speed up the normalization process with Armenia” if it wants the Obama administration to block further resolutions in the U.S. Congress recognizing the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

    This warning attributed to Biden could be seized upon by Armenian critics of the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, who say it has helped Ankara to thwart a broader international recognition of the Armenian genocide.

    They were already incensed when Biden claimed last year that Sarkisian himself had asked the White House not to use the word genocide with regard to the killing of some 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians while Turkish-Armenian negotiations are in progress. Both official Yerevan and the U.S. Embassy in Armenia denied that claim, which was videotaped by an Armenian-American activist and available on YouTube.com.

    Biden strongly supported Armenian genocide resolutions debated by Congress when he was a member of the U.S. Senate.

    compiled from agency reports

    via U.S. Again Tells Turkey To Honor Armenia Accords.

  • Turkey will sign protocols if Armenia surrenders 2 regions

    Turkey will sign protocols if Armenia surrenders 2 regions

    Turkey-Armenia protocols can still be brought forward to the Turkish Parliament and be voted on, European Program Director at the International Crisis Group Sabine Freizer told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

    83632In an e-mail letter she commented on recent statement by Turkish President Abdullah Gul that the protocols cannot be considered dead.

    The expert considers Turkish parliament is unlikely to vote until there is some positive movement on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

    In October 2009 Armenia and Turkey signed protocols in Zurich to normalize diplomatic relations between the states. The documents had to be ratified in both countries’ parliaments. However, in 2010 the Armenian president suspended the process due to Turkey’s non-constructive stance.

    Ankara set preconditions and linked the reconciliation process to resolution of the Karabakh conflict.Turkey decided to remove the protocols from parliament’s agenda this August.

    “Even though there is no legal link between the two issues, in practice and for political reasons Turkey has linked them. Ankara has not clearly defined what it means by ‘progress’ however, it could possibly mean the signature of an agreement on basic principles or the start of withdrawal by Armenian forces of one or two of the occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh,” she said.

    According to Freizer, such a withdrawal would indeed change the whole dynamic in the region towards peace and development. “Neither Armenia nor Nagorno-Karabakh have ever claimed sovereignty over territories like Fizuli,” she said.

    Commenting on the protocols, she stressed that even if they are not yet signed, “normalization between Armenia and Turkey is moving forward with regards to contacts in many fields.”

    via Turkey will sign protocols if Armenia surrenders 2 regions – Sabine Freizer | Armenia News – NEWS.am.