Arminfo
2007-02-22 15:06:00

USA faces question whether to adhere to hypocritical policy of
prudence or to historical truth

U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan cannot afford a
repeat of demonstrations closing the airbase in response to the
passage of the resolution on the Armenian Genocide in the US House of
Representatives. This opinion is expressed in the article of Soner
Cagaptay, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy, published in the Washington Times, Thursday.

The author of the article reminds that in September 2000, when another
Armenian resolution was submitted to Congress, more than 10,000 Turks
demonstrated outside the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey, an
invaluable asset for U.S. military operations, shutting it down for
three days.

In the author’s opinion, if passed in the House, the resolution would
sever the bilateral ties between Washington and Ankara. The resolution
would also be the Democratic majority’s first foreign-policy blunder
in the new Congress. At this critical juncture of spiraling
instability in Iraq and a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, the United
States cannot afford to lose Turkey, a major, if underappreciated,
partner for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan alike. Besides, an
overwhelming number of Turks say that the 1915 deportation of
Armenians from Anatolia to Syria in the Ottoman Empire does not
constitute genocide, yet the House resolution declares 1915 to be a
genocide, S.Cagaptay writes. By passing the resolution, the Congress
would be passing judgment on Turkish history, which the Turks would
see as the ultimate insult. This is bad news at a time when America’s
favorability rating in Turkish opinion polls is already at an all-time
low of 7 percent. The House resolution would cause a massive public
outpouring of Turkish resentment against the United States. This
backlash would inevitably cripple U.S.-Turkish military cooperation,
the author says.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress