WHO’S GOING TO THE PARTY?
Ara Khachatourian
Asbarez
Apr 9th, 2010
All eyes are on the upcoming nuclear summit in Washington, not because
new policies for international nuclear proliferation will be decided,
but for the fate of the Armenia-Turkey protocols, as President Serzh
Sarkisian and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be among the
participants. Of course, Erdogan was dragging his feet about attending
the summit, acting like a wounded socialite whose dilettante ego was
wounded because the House Foreign Affairs Committee paved the way
for the Armenian Genocide Resolution to be considered by the entire
House of Representatives.
Earlier this week, word came that Sarkisian will meet with President
Obama, while State Department spokespeople said that Obama does not
have a meeting scheduled with Erdogan; however the two will be seated
next to each other at one of the sessions of the summit. Then came
a visit by Erdogan’s envoy to Yerevan with a personal invitation for
Sarkisian to meet the Turkish leader. Sarkisian agreed. But where is
Azerbaijan? Turkey is upset that Azerbaijan was excluded from this
important international summit. The aforementioned envoy went to Baku
to let Ilham Aliyev know that his boss would be meeting with Aliyev’s
arch nemesis, Sarkisian.
On the eve of this summit, the outcome of which can be nuclear indeed,
attention should be focused on the rhetoric from Yerevan and Ankara
leading up to next week.
For the past several months, Armenian authorities have been asserting
Yerevan’s position and garnering international attention. Sarkisian
has gone on record as saying he wants Obama to recognize the Genocide,
that Der Zor was a precursor to Auschwitz, the proposed "historical
commission’ had no business addressing the Genocide and that no
Karabakh peace would be achieved without the acknowledgement of
Karabakh’s right to self-determination.
Meanwhile, Ankara-Erdogan-called back its ambassadors from the US and
Sweden after Genocide resolutions were approved in those countries,
said it would cut ties with the US, threatened to deport Armenians
from Turkey, reasserted that without a Karabakh peace plan that
favors Azerbaijan, the protocols would not go forward, and claimed
there was no Genocide to speak of.
>From the Azeri front came more threats of war, the approval, albeit
with conditions, of the new so-called "Madrid Principles," and a new
interpretation of history by Aliyev when he said Azerbaijan already
ceded control of its territories to Armenia once before, in 1918,
when it allowed the formation of an independent republic.
The stage is set for a dramatic turn of events next week.
Washington’s aim is to bring Turkey and Armenia together and strong
arm their leaders into ratifying the dangerous protocols on the eve
of April 24. We all remember, too well, what happened last year on
April 22, when the "roadmap" was introduced and hailed by the US,
whose leaders’ cowardly efforts to backpedal on campaign promises
have resulted in alienating the Armenian-American community.
The Armenian government, it seems, has been on a path to correct its
regrettable mistake of entering the protocol process and has been
vocal in outlining Armenia’s position on the matter.
In Washington, President Sarkisian should not fall prey to US efforts
of forcing the protocols down his throat and should remember his
assertive statements to Chatham House in London, Der-Spiegel, Euronews,
Le Figaro, and, finally at Der-Zor.
Mr. President, on the eve of the 95th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide, the Armenian nation is looking to you to honor-and not
deface-the memory of the 1.5 million victims.