US-Turkish cooperation to block the recogntion of the Armenian Genocide
(analysis)

24.03.2006 13:16
Armen Manvelian
“Radiolur”[ ArmRadio ]

Newly declassified state department files reveal that as early as
1970s US and Turkish governments were closely cooperating to block the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the United Nations. The
declassified documents mainly present US State Department’s
correspondence with the US delegation to the United Nations and the US
Ambassador to Turkey and include instructions on how to cooperate with
the Turkish government and the Turkish delegation to UN to block the
recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

“These files provide new insights into the depths to which our own
government has sunk in its complicity with Turkey’s denial of the
Armenian Genocide,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the
Armenian National Committee of America.

Turning to this issue, we should note that the US-Turkish cooperation
in the second half of the past century is a fact known to the
history. In this period the close cooperation and even the strategic
partnership between the two countries could be explained with the
geopolitical situation of the time and the sharpening competition
between the two superpowers, i.e. USSR and the US.

Under conditions when the Soviet Union was trying to spread its
supremacy all over the world, and the US, in its turn, was willing to
resist this and extend its influence over Eurasia, the relations with
Ankara were of strategic importance for Washington. Thus, we can say
that the issue of recognition of the Armenian Genocide had actually
become a victim of the struggle between the superpowers. In its fight
against the Soviet Union US was attaching importance to the role of
Turkey, which, being a member of NATO and directly bordering the USSR
(particularly Armenia and Georgia), had a strategic importance for
Washington. In 1960s American middle-distance rockets were even
deployed on Turkish territory. These could hit the Soviet Union any
time. It is clear that under terms of such strategic partnership the
leadership of the White House was doing everything for winning
Ankara’s favor and preventing the acknowledgement of the Armenian
Genocide. It should be noted that the American rockets disappeared
from Turkish territory after the famous Caribbean crisis, when, in
response to Washington’s demand to remove Soviet rockets from Cuba,
official Moscow demanded to remove the American rockets from Turkish
territory.

This demand of the USSR was fulfilled a year after the settlement of
the crisis. Nevertheless, turning to current state of
Turkish-American relations, we should note that different from the
sweet Turkish-American relations in the second half of the 20th
century, these are currently rather complex, and those in Washington
and Ankara do not believe the statements on strategic partnership. The
talks about this situation escalated just after the collapse of the
Soviet Union, when it became clear that Turkey was losing its
strategic importance for the United States. And despite the fact that
for a long time the influence of pro-Turkish lobbying was continuing
to remain powerful in the White House and especially in the Pentagon,
the second war in Iraq put the things in the right place, and it
became clear that Turkey could not be an ally of the US neither from
the long-term strategic perspective, nor the short-term militant
view. We can definitely assert that the collapse of the Soviet Union
and the decline of Turkey’s strategic role were the reasons why in the
course of the recent years Parliaments of 15 countries of the world
recognized and condemned the fact of the Armenian Genocide. The time
has come for the US government to find the courage to call a spade a
spade and recognize the Armenian Genocide. At the same time it is
clear that this will occur only in case the interests of the US and
Turkey clash. Then, pursuing its own political interests the White
House will at last acknowledge the reality of the Armenian Genocide.