TURKISH DENIALIST PRIME MINISTER ERDOGAN EXPOSES TURKEY TO INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION
By Appo Jabarian
USA Armenian Life Magazine
December 24, 2009
During an official visit to Washington on December 6-8, Turkish
Prime Minister Receb Tayyip Erdogan made derogatory statements on
the Armenian Genocide. Erdogan’ denialist remarks triggered a wave
of international condemnation of Turkey.
On December 11, The Coordinating Council of Armenian Organizations
of France (CCAF) issued a timely press release strongly condemning
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s denialist statement in Washington
D.C. that his "ancestors have never committed genocide" against the
Armenian people. The CCAF urged "the international community and in
the first place, U.S. President Barack Obama to use his influence so
that Turkey severs itself from denialism and confronts history in an
irreversible way and with dignity and transparency. We also appeal
the U.S. administration to reactivate the process of the adoption
of the resolutions HR 252 and S252 introduced in the U.S. Congress"
reaffirming the U.S. record on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide
at the hands of Turkey.
The CCAF also underlined the fact that it is even more troubled by
the turn of events when Turkey resorted to setting preconditions on
its Parliament’s ratification of the Protocols with the process of
the negotiations on Armenian Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh
Republic) between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Erdogan even had the gall to declare Artsakh’s liberation an
"occupation." First and foremost, Turkey should end its occupation of
Northern Cyprus, Western Armenia and Cilicia; Greek Pontus and Smyrna.
In a strongly-worded article titled "Denialist Erdogan in the White
House: An Unworthy Guest," Harut Sassounian, the Publisher of The
California Courier wrote: "Rather than hosting him in the White
House, Pres. Obama should have declared him ‘persona non grata’ — an
undesirable person! Would Pres. Obama have welcomed Iran’s President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the White House and sang his praises, given his
revisionist views on the Holocaust? Inviting Erdogan to the U.S. is
even more offensive, akin to receiving a German leader who denies
the Holocaust!"
Sassounian added: "During his December 8, hour-long PBS TV interview
by Charlie Rose, Erdogan brought up the Armenian issue…. Erdogan’s
boastful comments led Charlie Rose to raise the Armenian Genocide
issue in a passive manner by asking: ‘What is necessary in order to —
what more evidence does history need with respect to the genocide?’
The question threw Erdogan into a rage, making him spew hateful
statements about the Armenian Genocide: ‘I can say very clearly
that we do not accept genocide. This is completely a lie. I invite
people to prove it…. Something like this is really not possible,
and there is no truth to it.’ These are the shameful words of the
same man who claimed there was no genocide in Darfur, since he saw
no trace of such a crime during his visit to Sudan!"
Sassounian concluded: "It is a shame that Armenia’s leaders, rather
than repudiating Erdogan’s offensive statements on the Armenian
Genocide, continued to talk about normalizing relations with Turkey!
Armenian Americans were equally negligent, failing to express their
outrage. Erdogan should have been confronted in Washington with
massive protests and demonstrations! Sadly, silence makes genocide
denial an acceptable practice!"
CCAF’s public statement on behalf of key Armenian-French organizations
protesting Erdogan’s denialist remarks is a fresh example of worldwide
Armenians’ political combat-readiness.
As for Sassounian’s timely commentary, the article illustrates a new
approach for the way Armenian-Americans and even world Armenians should
adopt in the face of denialist Turkish leaders’ visit to Washington,
Brussels, Paris, London, Moscow, Berlin, Athens, Beirut, Buenos Aires,
Ottawa and other important political power centers that have sizeable
Armenian populations. Armenians should continue teaming up with
Greeks, Kurds, and Cypriots speaking out against Turkey’s denialism,
occupation and mass killings.
Armenian activists everywhere should ask for and receive the help
that they need in order to mount swift and sizeable public protests;
confronting the Turkish lies; and outright condemning Erdogan’s
ridiculous and derogatory statements on the Armenian Genocide.
Armenian-Americans can and should move to turn the table on Turkey by
countering the official Turkish propaganda devised by hired public
relations and publicity experts that are paid handsomely by Turkish
funds ironically financed by U.S. foreign aid which in turn is provided
to Turkey by unwitting U.S. taxpayers.
By heeding Sassounian’s advice to actively confront visiting denialist
Turkish leaders on U.S. soil and elsewhere in the free world, the
Armenian-American and other Armenian communities can gain important
political mileage for their Cause and can deal additional blows to
denialist Turkey’s already badly tarnished image.
But Armenians should not stop there. They should think out of the box
and speak out strongly against other manipulative powers from Moscow
to Paris to Washington that try to exploit Turkey’s auto-detrimental
denialism and Armenia’s passive position.
In reaction to Sassounian’s article, Masis Babajanian, MD of California
wrote on "What I see happening is that Turkish
and almost every other country’s politicians meet behind closed doors
and devise often unethical strategies for their gains.
Since WWI, Turkey has been effective in marketing itself as a US
ally, a Soviet ally, a Russian ally, a Muslim ally, an Iranian
ally, a European ally, a Nazi ally, a Jewish ally, an Azeri ally,
a Palestinian ally. They are even a Chechen ally and a de facto Al
Qaeda ally. In the end they shortchange everyone but are conniving
enough for none to notice. … Our leaders (in Armenia) … do not
market their strategic location or capabilities nor make any threats.
Such a passive stance will be destructive."
Babajanian added: "Why doesn’t the US feel compelled to support
Armenia? Otherwise Armenia may support the Iranian nuclear program
for example. Why doesn’t Iran support Armenia, fearing it may
allow US bases to use its soil? … Just like the rest of the world,
Armenia needs to approach any set of negotiations with a multi-faceted
approach, sometimes siding with and defying the adversary or mediator
at the same time."
Gayane, another reader, wrote on "I just
can’t stand this matter-of-fact approach our government is taking
toward Turkey and how they are conducting business in regards to the
Protocols. Is there anyone alive in the Armenian government to snap
Sarkissian out of his sleep? I don’t understand how much evidence do
they need to stop all this and just spit Turkey out of the equation
all together? Silence does make the denier’s job easy. I agree with
you Harut."
In order to effectively derail and neutralize Turkey’s anti-Armenian
policies, the world Armenians should make use of each and every
political weapon that is available to them.
For example, they should speak out against the ongoing bloody
clashes in the streets of Kurdish populated cities, triggered by the
Constitutional Court’s banning of the Kurdish Democratic Society Party
(DTP); and the fact the Turkish high Court expelled two DTP members
from Turkey’s Parliament.
Back in the Soviet Union’s heydays, some Diaspora Armenians mistakenly
thought that "Kremlin did not care about the Diaspora Armenians’
anti-Soviet demonstrations." But in reality, Moscow constantly feared
having its international reputation exposed to negative publicity
resulting from anti-Soviet demonstrations by the Diaspora Armenians.
The same could be said even today for any nation, let alone Turkey. No
nation would welcome the idea of being exposed to negative public
opinion. All major powers like the United States, France, Germany,
Russia, China, Canada, and Japan become uneasy about any kind of
negative publicity "presented" to them in the form of public protests.
The situation is even worse for Turkey -a pariah state. More than any
nation in the world, Turkey is over-eager to rehabilitate its public
image which is badly tarnished because of the Armenian Genocide,
the Genocide of the Pontus-Smyrna Greeks, and of the Assyrians;
the mass killings of the Kurds; and the occupation of Northern Cyprus.
The world Armenians have to re-invent themselves as justice-seeking
people.
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