FOR SLOVENIA ERDOGAN IS “MAN OF THE YEAR”, FOR GERMANY – NO LONGER
Karine Ter-Sahakyan
PanARMENIAN.Net
March 27, 2012
Turkey vainly hopes that resolutions in the U.S. Congress won’t be
adopted every year.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is still considered
politician number one in some countries of Eastern Europe, and not
only. Erdogan is awarded prizes for peace, is named man of the year,
of the decade, and almost of the century. It’s difficult to find
an explanation for this phenomenon. But if you look at the list of
countries that award Erdogan, everything becomes more or less clear.
PanARMENIAN.Net – International Institute for Middle East and Balkan
Studies in Slovenia presented the award “World personality of the
decade” to Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The award was given on the occasion
of the 10th anniversary of the Institute and for a balanced policy in
the Middle East and the Balkans. But they say the award will be handed
to the Turkish Prime Minister later. The logic of the above-mentioned
actions of this Institute does not fit in the real situation in
the Middle East – hardly can Turkey be counted among the countries
that really seek peace in the Middle East and the Balkans. Recent
developments related to Syria tell of the opposite. Creation of a
buffer zone, calling for al-Assad to “leave in a friendly way” and
the â~@~Kâ~@~Knever-ending war with the Kurds have little to speak
of the peacefulness of Ankara. Not to mention Israel against which
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is ready to wage war, should
Jerusalem start bombing Iran. “We will not accept a military strike
against Tehran, with whom we have some disagreements over Syria. If
Iran is bombed, Turkey will not remain indifferent,” Davutoglu said.
In his turn, Turkish President Erdogan said that in case of
necessity, Turkey could resume military operation in northern Iraq
to kill terrorists. “Earlier, Turkey already conducted an operation
in northern Iraq. At present, we are monitoring the situation and if
necessary we may resume the operation in northern Iraq,” Erdogan said.
Currently the Turkish army is fighting on its own territory: more than
two dozen Kurdish rebels were killed in Sirnak and Bitlis last week.
Moreover, 15 militants killed in Bitlis were women.
As for the other prize intended for Erdogan – German Steiger Awards
awarded for tolerance – a decision was finally made not to award it.
Wording of the refusal was quite evasive and consistent with the best
European traditions: the Prime Minister did not attend the ceremony,
and therefore he was refused the award. But in fact, the refusal
of the organizing committee was conditioned by protests. Armenians,
Kurds, Assyrians and Alawites staged a protest in Bochum against this
decision of the organizing committee. And a day before the ceremony
of awards the Steiger Awards changed the nomination. In accordance
with the change, Erdogan was to be presented an award on the occasion
of the 50th anniversary of Turkish-German friendship, but in the end
he lost it, too.
As for tolerance, no one in Turkey has ever “suffered” of it,
especially in regard to minorities, Armenians and Greeks in
particular. At a meeting with the U.S. President in Seoul, at the
summit on nuclear security, Erdogan could not resist and chided Obama
for the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group and the Armenian Genocide
resolution introduced into the U.S. Senate. “I reminded Obama that
during the past two decades the OSCE Minsk Group has not succeeded in
settling the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. And since the
issue has reached a deadlock, I suggested that we talk to Azeris and
Minsk Group co-chairing France, Russia and the United States to try to
persuade Armenia, so that they can solve the issue,” Erdogan was quoted
as saying in the Turkish Sabah newspaper. The trouble with Ankara
is that she has not yet realized that nothing on the Karabakh issue
depends on her, and the best thing she can do is just not to interfere.
However, the Turkish premier called on Obama “not to mistake U.S.
senators, lawmakers and politicians for historians.” “I told Obama
that we are tired. Every year in April we face the same problem,
whether Republicans come [to power] or Democrats, the issue remains
the same. Bills should not appear in Congress every year,” Erdogan
said. He apparently forgot for a moment that the U.S. president
cannot sign a decree on preventing the legislature from introducing
or not introducing this or that resolution into the Congress. But
Erdogan is confident that he warned Obama about the Armenian issue
and the president of the United States in his April 24 address to the
Armenian community will say “Metz Yeghern”. However, in vain Turkey
hopes that resolutions in the U.S. Congress won’t be adopted every
year. All in vain…