Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday made the Obama administration’s highest-level comments yet on the historic moves toward reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia.
Biden spoke by phone with Armenian President Serge Sarkisian, and a statement from Biden’s office said the vice president told him that he welcomed Wednesday’s announcement from Armenia and Turkey of a breakthrough in normalizing ties after years of bitter tensions…
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Nicole Pope is a Swiss journalist and writer, based in
Istanbul since 1987. She is co-author of “Turkey Unveiled: a history of modern Turkey” and worked for 15 years as Turkey correspondent for the French daily Le Monde. Her articles have also been published in numerous other international publications including The Economist, The International Herald Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Independent. Nicole worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Baghdad (1982-83) and in south Lebanon (1983-84). She has also lived in Tehran, Bahrain and Cyprus.
On April 23rd, as the Turkish World and their friends will celebrate the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day holiday, as they have done since 1920 when the Turkish Grand National Assembly was established, over a thousand young students from 50 countries will come to Turkey for the 31th International Children’s day celebrations in Izmir, joining their hosts commemorating an event in a spectacular show of peace and friendship. While annual allegations that perpetuate hatred are made by the Armenians in April every year, Turkish Radio and Television (TRT) invites children from all over the world to promote love and understanding, with hope that the children of the world live in peace. It is sad that the children from the Republic of Armenia will not be among them, enjoying the wonderful bond with students from Turkey and other countries, denied by the government of a nation which supports terrorism and perpetuates hatred. There is also a school from the US participating this year , as there was one representation last year.
On April 25, the Australians and the New Zealanders will travel to Gallipoli , Turkey , and hold another commemoration and dawn services at the Anzac Cove, as they do every year, and will celebrate the establishment of their states. As they pay their respects to their fallen comrades in 1915, they will read the message of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to the parents of the Anzac soldiers, engraved in the Turkish Memorial.
”Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives..you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in Peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours.. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace after having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well” (1934)
On April 24th, most Armenians in the United States and around the world will commemorate a mythical genocide, invented for the sole purpose of creating hatred against the Turks everywhere as a revenge and catalyst for the continuation of their identities and raising money for their poor country. Armenia has become the second leading per capita recipient of U.S. foreign aid, behind Israel . Many of their supporters will join them, not knowing the real truth behind their motives and without realizing that the Armenian Diaspora in the U.S. and other countries were established by the thousands who left the Ottoman Turkish lands willingly, long before the conflict and the relocation in 1915. If, as claimed 1.5 million Armenians were annihilated, the number close to the total population of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire at the time, where did all the people in the Diaspora come from, especially close to half a million in California?
We should all protest this meaningless Armenian commemoration and urge everyone to speak against the meaningless Resolutions full of distortions and fabrications and convince their congressmen not to bring this to the House of Representatives or the Senate. The Armenians should read some of the books written by Greeks on the establishment of friendship and business relations between the two peoples. The Greek writer Dido Sotiriyu tells the following in her book ”Send My Greetings to Anatolia ”:
”And you, the son-in-law of Blind Mehmet! Especially you. Why are you looking at me with revulsion on your face? Yes, I killed you, so what? And again I am crying….You killed too! Brothers, friends, fellow countrymen… A huge generation killed each other for no reason!. The son-in-law of Blind Mehmet, send my greetings to my homeland! Send my greetings to Anatolia !. You should not feel hatred against us because we soaked your land with blood. God damn the executioners that allowed the brother kill his brother:”
Greeks invaded Anatolia in 1919 with the support of the Western powers, killed thousands of civilians and destroyed many villages and towns. They were defeated by the Turks under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal who spared the life of the Greek Commander Trikopis and established good relations with Venizelos, who later became the Prime Minister of Greece and nominated Mustafa Kemal Ataturk for the Nobel Peace Prize. Turks and Greeks have been able to create a sense of reconciliation and peace that benefits the people of both countries.
Armenians rebelled against their own government following the 1878 Berlin Treaty to establish a state of their own on lands where they were not the majority and joined the Russians in the fight against the Ottomans. William Saroyan, the Armenian-American writer, the son of an Armenian from Bitlis, wrote about this episode that came closest to the above statement by his Greek colleague when he said that ‘‘The real enemy of the Armenians were the Russians, not the Turks”. Saroyan wrote many books, received the Pulitzer prize for his book on the second world war ”The Human Comedy” and told the story of the Armenian Tragedy in his short story ”Antranik of Armenia ”.
The war was with the Turks of course. The other enemies were less active than the Turks, but watchful. When the time came one of these, in the name of love, not hate, accomplished in no time at all what the Turks, who were more honest, whose hatred was unconcealed, could not accomplish in hundreds of years. These were the Russians.
What happened between 1878 and April 24, 1915, the day that the Armenians commemorate as Genocide Day, claiming falsely that the Turks massacred 1.5 million Armenians, was the consequences of Armenian uprisings in the eastern Anatolia while the Armenians in the western Anatolia were continuing their lives as an integral part of the Ottoman society. The Armenians, deceived by the British who promised support for esteablishing a state of their own in the east started killing Turks long before 1915 when they formed armed committees and started wholesale massacre of defenseless Turkish villagers and revolted against their own government. Some members of their committees also carried terrorist activities in Istanbul . The Ottoman Government, which had many Armenian members, retaliated and issued an order for their relocation from the sensitive areas. Many Armenians died for different reasons. These are all well documented and told by the Armenian authors in their never ending ”Memoirs”, totally ignoring the atrocities committed by themselves and the killing of innocent Moslems. Books written by the Turks and Americans like Samuel Weems tell the other side of the tragedy, which is ignored by the Armenian authors.
Please look beyond the Armenian propaganda, first started during the late nineteenth century wave of nationalism and the first world war by the outside powers, just as Sotiriyu and Saroyan tell in their books. British Arnold Toynbee and American Ambassador Morgenthau produced misinformed and misguided documents with false statements and fabricated facts on the Armenian issue to induce the United States to enter the war on the side of the Allies, and authors like Aram Andonian and Franz Werfel wrote books based on distorted facts, admitting later that they had erred. The US Holocaust memorial Museum exhibits a fabricated quotation from Hitler on the Armenians, which is a disgrace.
Extremist Armenians around the world and their supporters should heed the April 23rd and April 25th celebrations and stop deceiving the people of the world with fabricated Armenian Genocide commemorations on April 24, instead honor the death of everyone. Turkey and Armenia should be friends. The only path for this is through a declaration to the world that they have been lied to and that they were also responsible for the tragedy, which resulted in killings on both sides, not by pressuring the US Congress and State Assemblies to pass resolutions proclaiming a mythical genocide. They should admit their share in the tragedies, just like Sotiriyu does in her book. Perhaps the new President of the U.S. Barack Obama will heed the truth and declare on April 24 that both sides suffered and that the past should be remembered as it actually evolved, not as it has been reconstructed by some selfish Armenians, and let its lessons guide us as we seek to build a better future for all the children of the world.
Respectfully,
Yuksel Oktay
Washington, NJ
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=34882
With Turkish / Armenian negotiations reaching a peak, the focus of attention is moving from the wider debate to petty bickering over who said this and who said that, the inevitable outcome of a process in which a country’s leaders discuss fundamentals of agreements with their international counterparts then hide the truth from their domestic audience. The Armenian negotiating parties, President Sargsyan and MFA Nalbandian, have unashamedly deceived the Armenian public with respect to their year-long negotiations on Karabakh and Genocide. Today, they would have the Armenian public believe that Turkey has suddenly introduced pre-conditions for opening the border, an untrue statement and particularly alarming as it came immediately after discussions with the US President in Turkey, which surely must have led to a common understanding between Turkey, Armenia and the US. True, the Turkish side did change its position after Obama’s trip to Turkey and re-introduced Karabakh as a pre-condition. But in contrast to Armenia, Turkish reports on its position have been consistent, in Ankara, in Baku and in Yerevan.
Turkey resolutely denies that the hostilities involving the slaughter of Armenians in the early 20th century amounted to Genocide and each year it spends considerable resources to defend its position, especially in the US. This year Turkey’s leaders spent several months and went to extraordinary lengths to avoid US recognition, realizing the new US President and most of his senior administration supported Armenia’s claim of Genocide. That is understandable from a Turkish perspective. But it is disturbing that the Armenian negotiating parties have not added their voices to the Armenian lobby for the US to recognize Genocide, but understandable, as US recognition would put a stop to the plan they have been doing all they can to keep from the Armenian public. Sargsyan and Nalbandian have been ‘warming to the Turkish proposal to establish a commission of historians’ and they have said so on several occasions, not for the good of the Armenian Republic, but in pursuit of personal gain.
On April 6th and 7th, Turkey was host to the US President, first in Ankara then in Istanbul, hailed as the highlight of Obama’s European tour. Several weeks prior to the Obama visit, Turkey announced that it had removed the Karabakh issue from its list of pre-conditions for opening the Turkish / Armenian border, seemingly infuriating Azerbaijan, but clearly a tactical move to demonstrate Turkish acquiescence in a ‘warming relationship’ with the Armenian administration and part of Turkey’s concerted effort to avoid what seemed to be an inevitable US Genocide recognition. The Obama trip went according to plan with the US and Turkey singing each others praise. But for Armenia, whilst Obama confirmed his personal position had not changed, he avoided using the word Genocide.
Armenia’s MFA Nalbandian decided not to travel to Ankara to meet with US President Obama on the 6th April as planned, but he eventually managed to find time on April 7th in Istanbul. He returned to Yerevan bristling with confidence of an imminent border opening and assuring the Armenian public that he and his President would do nothing to jeopardize a possible US recognition of Genocide. In fact, they had already done their damndest to jeopardize a possible US recognition of Genocide, they had announced that negotiations with Turkey were developing well and they anticipated an early opening of the Armenian / Turkish border – possibly in April. Under these circumstances it would have been confrontational for Obama to talk about Armenia’s ‘Genocide’ in Turkey and he would have been blamed for spoiling the Turkish – Armenian reconciliation process.
Nalbandian had barely finished his press conference in Yerevan, when Turkey announced in Ankara, Baku and Yerevan that it was to re-introduce Karabakh to the border-opening list of pre-conditions, a seemingly provocative move, especially after the Obama visit and only two weeks prior to a much anticipated 24th April Obama declaration on Genocide in the US. The Turkish move completely contradicted Nalbandian’s statement, plus many such Nalbandian statements in the run-up to Obama’s trip to Turkey. Sargsyan responded in Yerevan, accusing Turkey of suddenly introducing hitherto unknown pre-conditions, although pre-conditions have been known and documented throughout the nearly year-long negotiation process, and neither Sargsyan nor his Minister of Foreign Affairs had ever explained in Armenia how they had been resolved. However, the ‘newly introduced pre-condition’ did not dampen Sargsyan’s enthusiasm and he re-confirmed he would be travelling through the newly opened border on his way to watch football in Turkey this October.
From this somewhat implausible chain of events, it is presumably to be believed that President Gul had a change of heart after negotiations between President Obama and Armenia’s MFA Nalbandian; that he decided to slap the well-intentioned face of his most powerful strategic ally by revoking on this critical and most sensitive of issues. If true, that would surely invoke US recognition of Armenia’s Genocide on the 24th.
Of course not, Turkey’s President Gul would never concede on the Genocide issue, knowing that 90 percent of the Turkish population is opposed, and at a time when his ratings had plummeted in a keenly contested democratic election. The conclusion can only be that Obama left Turkey thankful and relieved that Turkey and Armenia had agreed to resolve the Genocide issue between them, through Turkey’s commission of historians, or some other such mechanism. Armenia’s President Sargsyan is on record as saying he has no ambitions with regard the historic Armenian lands in the eastern part of Turkey, so only the Karabakh issue needs to be resolved for him to travel through the border in October this year, and Bryza’s opinion is that Karabakh will soon be resolved.
Armenia’s former President Kocharian has been preparing his deal on Karabakh for several years, held back firstly by the lack of an acceptable Azerbaijani compensation package, and secondly his nerve to commit to the deal, knowing he would face the backlash from an angry Armenian public. Kocharian waited his time and supported Sargsyan as his successor on the understanding that Sargsyan, when President, would go through with the agreement he dare not sign.
However, in the same way that Turkey would never withdraw its support from Azerbaijan with regard Karabakh, Azerbaijan is equally committed to supporting Turkey on Genocide. In July 2008, seeing that Sargsyan was determined to finalize the Kocharian deal on Karabakh, the Azerbaijani / Turkish allies joined forces and threw Genocide into the equation, knowing the self-imposed illegitimate Sargsyan regime would jump at the chance of adding to the package of compensation it was demanding in return for one of Armenia’s very few state assets left after Kocharian’s eight years of pillaging – Karabakh.
In August 2008, the Georgia conflict prompted Moscow to force the pace of negotiations, so Medvedev dangled a $500 million carrot; then the World economic crisis presented the opportunity for the US to throw a billion or so more dollars into the pot, conveniently facilitated by the World Bank and the IMF. Now half the World is on tenterhooks, waiting the next episode in this most unsavory Caucuses conflict resolution saga, which is due this 24th April in New York.
The Kocharian / Sargsyan Karabakh ‘Ace’ has already been played several times with the EU and PACE to chock up the illegitimate Sargsyan Presidency. Soon it will be played for the last time, to draw massive compensation in return for a beneficial agreement for Azerbaijan on Karabakh and for a Turkish commission of historians to finally eliminate Armenia’s claims of Genocide.
Turkey and Azerbaijan will have solved their longstanding problems with Armenia, the US will have been relieved the burden of Genocide recognition, Russia will see additional political clout and economic benefits in the Caucuses, and the Sargsyan / Kocharian regime will have a compensation package worth several billion dollars.
The vast majority of Armenians will be hoping that the US president stands by his promise and formally recognizes the Armenian Genocide this 24th April; in the longer term it will be beneficial to all parties concerned. Otherwise the Kocharian / Sargsyan regime will be having to cope with the backlash in Armenia, after having sold Armenia down the river with their ‘Karabakh / Genocide Deal’.
MOSCOW, April 18 (RIA Novosti) – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will visit Russia next Thursday, the Kremlin press service announced on Saturday.
Kremlin aide Sergei Prikhodko said on Friday that Sargsyan would come for a working visit next week, but could only say it was “tentatively” scheduled for April 23.
The visit is at the invitation of President Dmitry Medvedev, who on Friday met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
After the talks, Aliyev thanked Russia for its efforts to forge a common position on a settlement to the Nagorny Karabakh problem.
Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population, declared its independence from Azerbaijan in 1983. The ensuing Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict claimed some 35,000 lives. A ceasefire was signed in 1994. The area technically remains part of Azerbaijan, but has its own government and is de facto independent.
Medvedev brought the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents together in Moscow in November 2008 in an attempt to jump-start stalled negotiations on the region. Aliyev and Sargsyan followed up that meeting with hour-long one-on-one talks in Switzerland in late January.
