Turkish Forum

Category: Main Issues

  • AZERBAIJAN: ARMS SCANDAL STIRS SUSPICIONS OF MOSCOW

    AZERBAIJAN: ARMS SCANDAL STIRS SUSPICIONS OF MOSCOW

    Shahin Abbasov 27/01/09

    Azerbaijani allegations about the reported transfer of a multi-million-dollar stash of Russian weapons to Armenia should prompt Baku to rethink its relationship with Moscow both in terms of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and energy policy, local analysts say.

    On January 8, the independent “Mediaforum.az” portal first published the copy of a document allegedly signed by Lieutenant General Vyacheslav Golovchenko, deputy commander of armaments for Russia’s North Caucasus military district, that listed weapons and army vehicles transferred in 2008 to Armenia’s defense ministry from Russia’s military base in the northern Armenian town of Gyumri.

    The 69-item list included 27 T-72 tanks, several armored personnel carriers, various types of missiles and guns, grenade launchers, machineguns, submachine guns, mines, and shells. Anonymous experts cited by Mediaforum.az put the approximate value of the transfer at roughly $800 million.

    The document’s source was not indicated.

    While both Moscow and Yerevan have denied the transfer, Azerbaijani officials tell EurasiaNet that they have no doubts that the handover took place.

    One Azerbaijani government source, who asked not to be named, told EurasiaNet that the signed document was “first . . .obtained by the Azerbaijani security services via their channels in Moscow, and then leaked to Mediaforum.az.”

    “We have enough information on the issue,” the source said. He did not, however, specify what further steps Baku plans to take.

    In a January 15 statement, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry noted that the “Russian actions cause special concern . . . in the context of strategic partnership relations between Baku and Moscow and Russia’s mediating role in the Karabakh conflict’s resolution.”

    Parliamentarians have taken up the cry. Aydin Mirzazade, deputy chairman of the parliamentary commission on defense and security, argues that Azerbaijan should demand that Armenia return the weapons and vehicles to Moscow – or that Moscow withdraw from a role in the negotiations over Nagorno Karabakh, APA news agency reported.

    Whether or not the transfer actually took place is not a subject for public debate. The story has reawakened memories of the late Russian Lieutenant General Lev Rokhlin’s 1997 accusation that the Russian defense ministry was transferring weapons to Armenia without the Kremlin’s assent.

    Instead, analysts and parliamentarians alike are focusing on how Baku should respond, and reasons for the alleged transfer.

    Analyst Ilham Ismayil believes that Azerbaijan should now express clear support for the Nabucco gas pipeline – a project designed to offer an alternative to Russian supply routes to Europe – during the January 26-27 Nabucco summit in Budapest.

    “It is abnormal when a country [Russia] which you call a strategic partner transfers arms to your enemy,” Ismayil commented. Azerbaijani observers had earlier expressed concerns that arms withdrawn from Russia’s former bases in Georgia would end up in Armenia – the current scandal is cited as justification for those fears.

    Rauf Mirkadirov, political columnist for the Baku-based Zerkalo (Mirror) daily, goes still further. The Kremlin, he believes, hoped to use the arms transfer to trigger a fresh war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh in 2009, and thereby block the Nabucco project. The transfer acted as a de facto response to Azerbaijan’s own military buildup, he said; Azerbaijani military spending now stands at well over $2 billion per year.

    “[T]aking into account all of Russia’s recent actions, the possibility of the conflict resuming soon is unfortunately increasing again,” Mirkadirov said.

    The South Caucasus’ territorial conflicts are the only lever left for Russia to keep its influence in the region, to oppose Georgia and Azerbaijan’s integration with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and to block energy projects like Nabucco, Mirkadirov added

    But while Azerbaijani tempers simmer, Moscow shows little sign of changing its story.

    On January 21, the Russian foreign ministry gave the Azerbaijani embassy in Moscow an official note that affirms that the Russian defense ministry did not transfer or sell to Armenia any of the arms described in the Mediaforum.az report. The note described the report as “disinformation, which has a clearly anti-Russian character,” news agencies reported.

    In a January 16 statement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that a joint investigation with the Russian General Staff had shown that ” [t]he person whose name is mentioned in the Azerbaijani media did not sign any documents and Russia did not supply arms to Armenia last year. We came to the conclusion that this document is false.”

    Lavrov emphasized that, as co-members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Russia has programs of “military-technical cooperation” with both Armenia and Azerbaijan. “Our Azerbaijani friends know it and there were no concerns in the past,” he said.

     

    Editor’s Note: Shahin Abbasov is a freelance correspondent based in Baku. He is also a board member of the Open Society Institute-Azerbaijan.

    Eurasianet

  • Turkish-Australian community speech of Senator Ferguson

    Turkish-Australian community speech of Senator Ferguson

    PLEASE JOIN US IN THANK YOU CAMPAIGN FOR SENATOR FERGUSON

    From: Nihat Canikli <[email protected]>
    Subject: Turkish-Australian community speech
    To: [email protected]
    Date: Friday, March 20, 2009, 9:36 PM

    Dear Senator Ferguson,

    As a Turk living in Ankara, Turkey, I was informed of your Turkish-Australian community speech in the Senate on 18 March 2009. I would like to express that most of the Turks respect their enemies although Turks suffered a lot facing invading armies and their collaborators. As you may know, Turks and Muslims experienced massive death, exile and atrocities in the final period of Ottoman Empire. My grandfather fought in the World War I including Gallipoli front and later in the War of Independence against Greek army. In spite of all these wars and sufferings, we, Turks, do not feel hatred and animosity against our former enemies, their country and people.

    Unfortunately, most of the Greeks and Armenians continue anti-Turkish racist hate campaigns with the aim of gaining support from politicians and government officials in different parts of the world including Australia. They give a distorted picture of events in Turkey between 1915-1923. Armenians who collaborated with invading Russian army in eastern Anatolia in World War I caused mass killings of more than five hundred thousand Muslims and Greeks committed atrocities against Turks with the occupation of Greek army although those Christian communities enjoyed peace and prosperity in the Ottoman Empire for centuries.

    I thank you for your fair and objective position on the history of and modern-day Turkey. Your remarks will undoubtedly contribute a lot to the friendship of Australia and Turkey.

    With warmest regards,

    Nihat Canikli

    Ankara, Turkey

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    From: Turkish Consulate General Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 12:21 PM To: Turkish Consulate General Subject: Duyuru (1000 adrese dagitimli) Sayi: 1247
    Tarih: 20/03/2009

    Sayi: Melburn –  1247

    E-Konsolosluk:

    Melburn,  20 Mart 2009

    Kanberra Buyukelciligimizin girisimi ile Guney Avustralya Senatoru Alan Ferguson’un 18 Mart 2009 tarihinde Avustralya Parlamentosu’nda yaptıgı konusma:

    Senator Ferguson, gundem dısı soz alarak yaptıgı konusmada, Adelaide’daki Goc Muzesi’nde 20 Aralık 2008’de acılan “Pontus” plaketi ve bu munasebetle Guney Avustralya Eyaleti Cokkulturluluk, Adalet ve Muharip Gaziler Bakanı Atkinson’un konusmasına yonelik tepkisini ortaya koymaktadır.

    Vatandaslarimiza saygi ile duyurulur.

    T.C. Melburn Baskonsoloslugu

    Level 8, 24 Albert Road, South Melbourne  VIC  3205

    Tel: 03 9696 6046

    Fax: 03 9696 6104

    email: [email protected]

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    From: [email protected] Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 1:31 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: Your Speech on 18 March 2009 Turkish – Australian Relations
    Dear Senator Ferguson,   I have had the privilege of reading your speech in relation to the above mentioned topic in the Senate on the 18 March 2009.  I would like to convey my most heart felt gratitude to you and your family for such an inspiring speech.  One can well glean from the content, text and context of your speech that you are a man of honour and integrity, which are two very rare character traits in many politicians of the modern era.   I thank you from the bottom of my heart for putting onto the public record such important facts as you have.  I myself am a Turkish born Australian citizen and it is very rare that we as a community ever get the Australian “Fair Go” from any politician but especially the Australian Media.   I grew up in this beautiful nation of ours facing racism and continual allegations about how barbaric the Turkish race was and still is.  The political ploy employed by Pope Urban when he called on the first crusades is still alive and being used to this very date.  The most disappointing and hurtful of all is when democratically elected Politicians use the same or similar rhetoric as used by Pope Urban all those centuries ago, and the fact that the Australian Media by and large fall for it hook line and sinker.  Yet when a Turk tries to put forward their side of the story (whatever issue or topic it may be on) we are continually shut down and not heard.   This great Nation of ours needs more men and women of integrity and honour such as yourself if we are to successfully navigate through the troubled waters that lay ahead of us.  Sir I wish to mention that I was like many other Turks a committed Labor voter for many years until relatively recent times, however after your speech and dare I say the former Prime Minister Howard’s stance on the fallacious Armenian Genocide issue I will forever VOTE Liberal and I will try and convey that message to as many Turks as I can all over Australia.   Regardless of any perceived faults that Mr Howard may have had, I also admire him and his utmost honourable stance on the alleged Armenian Genocide issue which in reality cost him his seat at the last Federal Elections.  That fact has not been missed by the Australian Turkish Community.  He too could have pandered to the Armenian Voters in his former electorate like that grubby vote grabbing dishonest Maxine Mckew.  Mr Howard will always be remembered by the Australian Turkish Community as a man of principle, integrity and honour, as you will too.   The month of April is nearly upon us again, and another ANZAC Day nearing, what certain sections of the Armenian community could not achieve via acts of war, treachery, treason and terrorism, they are now trying to achieve via political means.  Like many thousands of other Australian Turks I hope that our voices will be heard one day by Australian politicians but especially the Australian Media and that we get a fair go in putting our side of the story to various issues.  Certain sections of the Armenian community are now trying to disgrace the memory of ANZAC day in this country by supposedly connecting their fallacious genocide claims with ANZAC day.  There is much that I would like to say but alas I do not wish to bore you with details.   You have provided me with great hope that my three children will grow up in an Australia that is fair and Just and that they will not face the same accusations that I faced whilst at school of coming from a barbaric race that slaughtered many millions of Armenians, Greeks and others.  We truly do live in the Luckiest Country in the world.   Sir I can not thank you enough.   My warmest regards Ataman Atlas
  • Turkey To Launch Armenian-Language Radio Station

    Turkey To Launch Armenian-Language Radio Station

    Reuters

    Turkey’s state broadcaster plans to launch an Armenian-language radio station, Anatolian state news agency said on Friday, amid tentative moves by Turkey and its neighbor Armenia towards restoring diplomatic ties.

    Relations between the two countries are haunted by the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One, which Armenia says amounted to genocide. Ankara accepts many Armenians were killed, but denies genocide was committed. Since then large numbers of Armenian speakers have left Turkey but some 40-50,000 remain, mostly in Istanbul.

    “At this stage, we will refrain from any comments,” an Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman said when asked about the report of the planned radio station on Friday.

    The announcement comes as some U.S. lawmakers, ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama to Turkey on April 6-7, are renewing a push to brand the 1915 massacre genocide.

    Ankara has warned that a new resolution by the U.S. Congress could seriously hurt Washington’s ties with NATO ally Turkey. It also argues such a resolution would derail the drive to mend relations with Armenia, including moves to open the border.

    Anatolian said the Armenian-language channel should go on air in “two to three months.” The official day of remembrance in Armenia is April 24.

    The genocide issue, which caused U.S.-Turkish relations to plummet in 2007, threatens to complicate Obama’s trip as Washington hopes to work closely with Turkey on Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East and the Caucasus. During his 2008 campaign for the White House, Obama referred to the killings of Armenians in World War One as genocide. Obama is now confronted with a choice between breaking a campaign pledge or risking defense ties with Turkey.

    Turkey and Armenia have no formal diplomatic relations but officials have held recent tentative discussions. Anatolian said state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corp (TRT), which launched a television channel in the once-banned Kurdish language in January, also planned to launch a Kurdish radio channel.

  • Talking ‘Turkey’ about genocide

    Talking ‘Turkey’ about genocide

    by Michael Tomlin

    Posted: Thursday, March 19, 2009

    Government, like business, needs leaders with standards, beliefs and values. We expect retailers to “just say no” to lead paint on toys. And we should expect our elected leaders to call genocide what it was and is.

    At issue is President Obama, caught in the pragmatic twist of pragmatists – people who believe only in current convenience – having declared during his campaign the historic annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as “genocide” now may be backing off the term so not to insult Turkey, which he will visit in April.

    Turkey of course is that same country with laws protecting and prohibiting itself from being insulted. Write an unflattering book or article about Turkey and you can be arrested and jailed. That is insult enough, done to themselves, separating them from the enlightened world.

    In Michael Doyle’s story for McClatchy Newspapers (Idaho Statesman, Mar. 18, 2009) diplomats warn of potential fallout should the U.S. president stand and call the genocide of the Ottoman Empire what it was. It would be “poorly received,” stated one former ambassador. What should be poorly received is Turkey, in any collection of civilized nations until they learn to accept criticism.

    What if our congressional leaders failed to question the AIG banker bonuses because criticism might be “poorly received” in the banking industry? OK, the questioning is a sham … but at least it’s an open and contentious sham. Let’s cover up the peanut paste scandal, too, and not risk being poorly received by the company allegedly responsible for numerous food-borne illnesses and deaths.

    Just as a good parent chooses carefully whom they allow their children to play with, so should business leaders and elected leaders make similar choices – based upon values and beliefs, behavior, actions, and deserved reputations. This is not a call for isolationism; there are businesses and countries aplenty for us to “play” with.

    I recently cancelled an account with Bank of America, and will soon do so with AIG. There are plenty of others I cherish – my relationship with my State Farm Insurance agent, ditto for Mountain West Bank, a new relationship with Les Bois Credit Union, restaurants and shoe makers, airlines and my doctor. They re-earn my patronage with their behavior over the years, not just with each meeting or transaction.

    I expect no less from business leaders selecting their suppliers and distributers. And I have even a higher standard for my president. Stand for the United States and our interests, and don’t stand at all with those not ready for prime time on the world stage. It’s not the pragmatic view, but then values seldom are.

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    Talking Turkey: Denying the Iraqi Genocide

    Written by Paul Craig Roberts
    Sunday, 21 October 2007 16:20
    The Iraqi Genocide
    by Paul Craig Roberts
    Why has not the Turkish parliament given tit for tat and passed a resolution condemning the Iraqi Genocide?

    As a result of Bush’s invasion of Iraq, more than one million Iraqis have died, and several millions are displaced persons. The Iraqi death toll and the millions of uprooted Iraqis match the Armenian deaths and deportations.

    If one is a genocide, so is the other.
    It is true that most of the Iraqi deaths have resulted from Iraqis killing one another. But it was Bush’s destruction of the secular Iraqi state that unleashed the sectarian strife.

    Moreover, American troops in Iraq have killed more civilians than insurgents. The US military in Iraq has fallen for every bit of disinformation fed to it by Al Qaeda personnel posing as “informants” and by Sunnis setting up Shi’ites and Shi’ites setting up Sunnis. As a result, American bombs and missiles have blown up weddings, funerals, kids playing soccer, and people shopping in bazaars and sleeping in their homes.

    Not to be outdone, Bush’s private Waffen SS known as Blackwater Security has taken to gunning Iraqi civilians down in the streets. How do Blackwater and Custer Battles killers escape the “unlawful combatant” designation?

    One can only marvel at the insouciance of the US Congress to the current Iraqi Genocide while condemning Turkey for one that happened 90 years ago.

    People seldom see the beam in their own eye, only the mote in the eyes of others. Every member of the Bush Regime is busily at work denouncing Iran for causing instability in the Middle East.

    Meanwhile, the US has invaded two countries, throwing them into total chaos, while beating the drums for war with Iran and conspiring with Israel to invade Lebanon and to attack Syria.

    The indisputable facts are that the US and Israel have attacked four Middle East countries and are determined to attack a fifth. Yet, it is peaceful Iran, at war with no one, that Bush and Israel blame for causing instability in the Middle East.

    Not content with its many wars in the Middle East, the Bush Regime is sponsoring wars in Africa and is setting up an African Command. The US government has been bombing and attacking other countries ever since the cold war ended. Instead of peace, the gang in Washington DC chose war.

    Other than the Israel Lobby, the greatest supporters of Bush’s wars are Christian evangelicals, specifically the “rapture evangelicals” and the “Christian Zionists.”

    I remember when Christianity was about saving one’s soul. Today it is about bringing on Armageddon. While the various evangelical Christians preach war in the Middle East, they condemn Islam for being a “warlike religion.”

    Americans are so full of themselves that they are blind to their extraordinary hypocrisy.
    The US government has broken every agreement with Russia by withdrawing from the anti-ballistic missile treaty, pushing NATO to Russia’s borders, conniving to place missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic, and buying governments in former Soviet republics and installing US military bases therein.

    When Russian President Putin finally has enough and protests, the US Secretary of State blames Putin for being difficult and restarting the cold war.

    Few Americans realize it, but they take the cake.

    International polls show that the rest of the world regard the US and Israel as the greatest dangers to world peace. Americans claim that they are fighting wars against terrorism, but it is US and Israeli terrorism that worries everyone else. The rest of the world knows that the wars are about US and Israeli hegemony and that the US and Israel are prepared to engage in whatever acts of terror are necessary to achieve hegemony.

    That is the bare fact.
    When the US dollar loses its reserve currency status, the US empire will come to an abrupt end. Sooner or later the rest of the world will realize this and, in an act of self-protection, dethrone the dollar.
    Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.
    He can be reached at: [email protected]
    source
  • Move from Senate ahead of Obama visit

    Move from Senate ahead of Obama visit

    US lawmakers pressure Obama on Armenian issue

    WASHINGTON – While it is not clear whe Obama for America ther United States President Barack Obama will keep his promise to recognize the Armenians’ claims of genocide, a group of pro-Armenian lawmakers formally introduces a resolution calling for the US government’s recognition, as this year’s April 24 statement looms on the horizon

    A group of pro-Armenian U.S. lawmakers Tuesday formally introduced a resolution calling for the U.S. government’s recognition of the Armenians’ claims of genocide.

    Democratic congressmen Adam Schiff and Frank Pallone and Republican congressmen George Radanovich and Mark Kirk authored the legislation, and 77 out of 435 lawmakers in the House of Representatives, Congress’s lower chamber, cosponsored it.

    This number was considerably smaller than the over 160 original cosponsors who had backed the last similar resolution introduced in the previous House in January 2007.

    The legislation’s introduction came less than three weeks before President Barack Obama’s planned visit to Ankara and Istanbul.

    During last year’s presidential election campaign, Obama had pledged to recognize the Armenian killings as genocide, if elected.

    Moral obligation

    But it is not clear if he, in his expected April 24 statement on Armenian deaths, will qualify the killings as genocide, or if he will support the latest House resolution.

    Turkey warns that any formal U.S. recognition will damage bilateral relations in a major and lasting way.

    Supporters of the resolution argue that the United States has a moral obligation to recognize the killings regardless of the foreign policy implications.

    “The facts of history are clear, well documented, and non-negotiable,” said Schiff.

    U.S. Armenian groups welcomed the resolution’s introduction and urged Obama to keep last year’s promise.

    “We look, in the coming days and weeks, for the president to honor his pledge, to fully support this legislation, and to raise the discourse in Washington on the Armenian genocide from the level of Turkey’s threats and denials up to the level of the core moral and humanitarian values of the American people,” said Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian Narional Committee of America.

    “This legislation is an opportunity for the United States to assume a leadership role in genocide affirmation and genocide prevention,” said Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America.

    To pass, the resolution needs to be approved first by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and then in a House floor vote. But even if it passes, it will not have a binding effect for the U.S. administration’s policies and will reflect “the sense of Congress.”

    April 24 statement

    It is not clear when the resolution could come to the Foreign Affairs Committee’s agenda.

    At a time when Turkey and Armenia are working on a package to normalize their relations, most analysts agree that Obama is not expected to qualify the Armenian killings as genocide in this year’s April 24 statement.

    “At this moment, our focus is on how, moving forward, the United States can help Armenia and Turkey work together to come to terms with the past,” said Mike Hammer, spokesman for Obama’s National Security Council. The last resolution was passed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee in October 2007. But it was then shelved and never came to a House floor vote following efforts by then-president George W. Bush’s administration’s efforts to stall it.

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    US lawmakers pressure Obama on Armenian issue
    11 Mar 2009 22:36:15 GMT

    Source: Reuters

    By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) – Several U.S. lawmakers have written to President Barack Obama urging him to follow up on campaign statements and label the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide. The pressure on Obama comes ahead of an expected presidential trip to Turkey, which has warned that such declarations by the United States would damage relations. Turkey denies that up to 1.5 million Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War One. Turkey accepts many Armenians were killed, but denies they were victims of a systematic genocide. Ronald Reagan was the only U.S. president to publicly call the killings genocide. Others avoided the term out of concern for the sensitivities of Turkey, an important NATO ally. Four members of the House of Representatives urged Obama to make a statement ahead of the 94th anniversary of the killings on April 24. “As a presidential candidate, you were … forthright in discussing your support for genocide recognition, saying that ‘America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides.’ We agree with you completely,” the letter said. It was signed by Democrats Adam Schiff of California and Frank Pallone of New Jersey, and Republicans George Radanovich of California and Mark Kirk of Illinois. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on a visit to Turkey last week, said Obama would visit “within the next month or so” in his first trip as president to a Muslim country. During Clinton’s visit, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Turkey would consider mediating between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program. The foreign minister also said in a recent television interview that he saw a risk that Obama would describe the Armenian deaths as genocide, because Obama had done this during his campaign. But Babacan said the United States needed to understand the sensitivities in Turkey. Another consideration for Obama will be that both Turkey and Armenia say they are close to normalizing relations after nearly a century of hostility. Other members of the administration, including Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden, have in the past supported calling the Armenian killings genocide. Democratic aides said they also expected several lawmakers to reintroduce a resolution branding the massacre of Armenians as genocide. Armenian-Americans have been pushing for passage of similar proposals in Congress for years. Two years ago, a resolution was approved in committee but dropped after Turkey denounced it as “insulting” and hinted at halting logistical support for the U.S. war effort in Iraq.
  • Sarkisian In Phone Call With Clinton

    Sarkisian In Phone Call With Clinton

     

     By Emil Danielyan

    President Serzh Sarkisian discussed a wide range of issues, including Armenia’s ongoing rapprochement with Turkey, in a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reported by his office on Wednesday.

    As they spoke, U.S. lawmakers formally introduced a fresh draft resolution that refers to the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide and urges President Barack Obama to do the same. The Obama administration did not immediately react to the initiative strongly backed by the influential Armenian community in the United States.

    A short statement issued by the Armenian presidential press service said Sarkisian and Clinton discussed U.S.-Armenian relations and, in particular, the recent extension of a freeze on some of American economic assistance to Yerevan. The U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation made the decision, citing the “status of democratic governance” in Armenia, at a March 11 meeting of its governing board chaired by Clinton.

    The statement said that Sarkisian and Clinton also touched upon international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and “the Turkish-Armenian political dialogue.” It gave no details.

    The U.S. State Department issued no statements on Clinton’s first-ever conversation with the Armenian leader. The acting department spokesman, Robert Wood, did not mention it at a daily press briefing in Washington on Tuesday.

    The current and previous U.S. administrations have welcomed the dramatic thaw in the traditionally strained Turkish-Armenian relations. After months of high-level negotiations, the two neighboring states appear to be on the verge of to establishing diplomatic relations and opening their border.

    Official Ankara has repeatedly warned that Obama will set back the long-awaited normalization of Turkish-Armenian ties if he publicly describes the 1915-1918 massacres of Armenians as genocide. “A bad step by the United States would only worsen the process,” Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on March 8.

    Babacan’s Armenian counterpart, Eduard Nalbandian, dismissed Turkish warnings during a visit to Paris last week.

    The highly sensitive issue is expected to feature large during Obama’s trip to Turkey scheduled for April 5. Turkish leaders already raised their concerns with Clinton when she visited Ankara earlier this month.

    During the U.S. presidential race, both Obama and Clinton repeatedly called the slaughter of more than a million Ottoman Armenians a genocide and pledged to reaffirm such declarations once in office. Neither leader has publicly commented on the subject since taking office.

    “The Los Angeles Times” reported on Tuesday that the Obama administration is now considering postponing an official U.S. recognition of the genocide in view of the unprecedented Turkish-Armenian rapprochement and Turkey’s importance for the success of U.S. plans on Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. “At this moment, our focus is on how, moving forward, the United States can help Armenia and Turkey work together to come to terms with the past,” Michael Hammer, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, told the paper.

    The Armenian-American community and its allies in the U.S. Congress, meanwhile, hope that Obama will honor his campaign pledges. “We do not minimize Ankara’s threats of adverse action when you recognize the genocide, or when Congress takes action to formally recognize the genocide, but we believe that our alliance is strong enough to withstand the truth,” a group of congressmen wrote in a recent letter to the president.

    Stepping up the pressure on the White House, the lawmakers on Tuesday submitted to the House of Representatives a bill that calls on Obama to “accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide” in his statement due on April 24, the genocide remembrance day.

    Armenian-American lobbying groups, meanwhile, seem confident that Obama will not bow to the Turkish pressure. “The Armenian government has been clear that no linkage exists between normalizing relations and U.S. genocide recognition, and aside from Turkish lobbying efforts, no one seriously thinks that President Obama, Vice President Biden or Secretary Clinton will jeopardize U.S. and their own credibility in opposing genocide recognition,” Van Krikorian, a senior member of the Armenian Assembly of America, told RFE/RL. “Turkey continues to come to terms with its own past and a reversion to the policy of accommodating denial will cut that off at the knees.”

    https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1600437.html