Turkish Prime Minister’s Triumphant Visit to Washington
ADL, Editorial, Turkey | May 14, 2013 5:01 pm
By Edmond Y. Azadian
It is well said by English historian and writer Lord Acton that power
tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There can be
no better example to demonstrated the veracity of the above adage then
citing the names of a political duo at the top of the power pyramid in
Washington DC: President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.
On the eve of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to
Washington, they have already sacrificed the most dispensable issues
in honor of the visiting dignitary: Armenians and the Armenian
Genocide. Obama and Kerry seemed to be espousing the most humanistic
and moral causes while serving in the senate. Mr. Kerry is extremely
knowledgeable on the Armenian Genocide and at times he has made the
most stirring remarks in favor of its official recognition. Yet during
his recent shuttle diplomacy between Washington and Ankara, he praises
Turkey’s position as a positive one in resolving the Karabagh
conflict. And he makes the statement with a straight face, showing
little concern with this political about face. He has no comments on
the continuing illegal blockade of Armenia.
As to Mr. Obama, he has already repeated his `Medz Yeghern’ charade on
April 24 and continues to keep Guantanamo Bay gulag, which had given a
black eye to the US human rights position during the Bush-Cheney era
and continues the stigma on the Obama administration’s rhetoric on
democracy and human rights.
Mr. Obama has given more to Turkey than the latter even expected,
because on the political market, Armenian rights and issues have
proven to be the most disposable ones.
He had already reduced US aid to Armenia dramatically and now presents
a legal gift to Mr. Erdogan on a silver platter. Indeed the Obama
administration has urged the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal of
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2012 striking down of a California
law extending the statute of limitations on the Armenian Genocide-era
life insurance claims. This is a third-world practice of exerting
political pressure on the judiciary to abort justice. Had this been
undertaken by a private citizen, it would be labeled as obstruction of
justice. Rather than leaving the Supreme Court to determine the merits
of the case, the administration has already intervened to block the
adjudication of the case.
It is reported that Prime Minister Erdogan will receive the highest
state welcome during his visit to the US on May 16-17. He will receive
two full military honors, one at the airport and the other at the
White House, as the formal guest of US President Barack Obama.
The agenda of their discussion will comprise a full plate, Syria being
the most dominant issue. The other items on that agenda will certainly
include Ankara’s initiative to open a dialog with the Kurdish
minority, relations between Israel and Turkey, which have always
constituted the centerpiece of US Middle East policy under any
administration, because, Israel, using the US muscle can continue its
hegemony in the entire region, with the tacit collusion of medieval
potentates (`moderate Arab nations’ in Washington’s lexicon.)
Iran and Iraq have been viewed by divergent views at their respective
capitals. Despite US sanctions against Iran, Turkey is continuing its
policy of business as usual, and in the case of Iraq, Turkey was
scared of that country’s position of Kurdistan emerging as an
independent state. But ironically at this time, Ankara has embraced
Iraqi Kurdistan, at the expense of destabilizing Iraqi Premier
Maliki’s central government, because Erdogan’s administration believes
they have contained Kurdish aspirations in their own country,
eliminating any spillover of Kurdish irredentism from Iraqi Kurdistan.
As the political agenda is reviewed, we certainly doubt that Mr. Obama
will ask Mr. Erdogan whether he has given any thought to his
suggestions at the Turkish Parliament during his first term; meaning
modern Turkey would make peace with its ugly Ottoman history.
Mr. Erdogan is being accorded all these accolades because he is coming
with bloody hands as the front man in destabilizing a sovereign
country – Syria – which has refused thus far to bow down on
Palestinian rights and continues to make claims on its confiscated
territories by Turkey in 1939, the Sanjak of Alexandretta and Golan
Heights in 1967 by Israel.
The recent bombs that killed 46 people and injured more than 100 in
Reyhanli, which is located in the Hatay region mostly populated by
Arabs and Alevis, may have been a warning by the restless Arab
populace, agitating against Erdogan’s shipment of mercenaries and
armaments in Syria. But for Mr. Davutoglu and for the West, it is most
convenient to point the finger at the Assad regime in Syria. That
accusation, compounded by the orchestration of `the use of chemical
weapons’ constitutes a concoction for casus belli.
By serving as a proxy for the West in the Middle East, Turkey has
acquired the status of a regional power, and an independent one at
that. That status renders Armenia’s maneuvering room very limited.
That is why during Erdogan’s visit to Washington no one will give him
a slap on the wrist to lift the blockade of Armenia.
The Turks have also planned their version of a Genocide centennial in
2015, as quoted in an article by Robert Fisk in London’s Independent
(May 12, 2013). The announcement by Turkey’s foreign Minister
Davutoglu is most revealing: `We are going to make the year of 1915
known to the world over, not as the anniversary of a genocide, as some
people claimed and slandered [sic] but we shall make it known as a
glorious resistance of a nation in our defense of Gallipoli.’
There is no conciliation or repentance in Davutoglu’s tone. Turkey
intends to drown calls for Armenian Genocide recognition in the
drumbeat of a dubious victory in Gallipoli that was one of history’s
mysteries as to how a crumbling Ottoman army defeated French and
British forces under Winston Churchill’s command, while troops from
Australia and New Zealand were slaughtered by Mustafa Kemal. The jury
is out on the issue because suspicion lingers that Britain betrayed
its own army to deny access to its World War I ally, Russia, access to
the warm waters of the Mediterranean and the strategic Strait of
Bosporus.
Armenians could counter Mr. Erdogan’s triumphant march on the red
carpet in Washington by a massive rally (not just 50-100 youth, which
can prove to be counterproductive), with slogans such as `Recognize
the Genocide,’ `Lift the Blockade’ and `Bloody hands off Syria.’ But
we have opted for the more comfortable position of armchair diplomats,
additionally sacrificing the completion of the Genocide Museum in
Washington.
Mr. Erdogan will think `If this is the political clout of one million
plus American Armenians, then I can walk triumphantly – not only on
the red carpet but also over the bones of 1.5 million Armenian
martyrs.’
From: A. Papazian