BAKU TRIES TO PREVENT TURKEY FROM IMPLEMENTING HER REGIONAL POLICY
Karine Ter-Sahakyan

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.02.2009 GMT+04:00

Turkish media rarely goes down to the level of Baku Agitation and
Propaganda Department, perfectly realizing what shape the wild
anti-Armenian hysteria can take.

Turkey has launched a propagandistic campaign against recognition of
the Armenian Genocide in all directions. All the tested methods are put
to use: blackmail, bribery, threatening. Yet, there is also something
new. The Washington based ethics monitor CREW has filed complaints with
federal agencies against the Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA) for various lobbying and campaign violations. According to
CREW, ANCA violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act and skirted
the Lobbying Disclosure Act.

The letters of complaint said ANCA had violated restrictions
on charitable organizations "by participating or intervening
in any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any
candidate for public office." Moreover, ANCA executives "have lobbied
Congress and the executive branch heavily with regard to perennial
congressional Armenian genocide resolutions and other legislation
bearing on U.S.-Armenia, U.S.-Turkey or U.S.-Azerbaijani relations
without even registering with the Secretary of the Senate or Clerk of
the House." "We’re not saying they should be out of business. We’re
saying there are laws and they should be obeyed," said Melanie Sloan,
a former federal prosecutor who’s now the head of the private Citizens
for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington."

In the words of Elizabeth Chouldjian, ANCA’s communications
director, the charges are unfounded and full of inaccuracies and
misrepresentations. Moreover, Chouldjian says the real story is why
this is being brought up especially now. "Accusations against the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) are purely political",
says "Hay Dat" Office Director Kiro Manoyan. "ANCA is not registered
as a lobbyist organization either in the House of Representatives
or in the Senate. These accusations might be initiated by the
Turkish lobby. Should there have been any financial violations, the
American Government would definitely have noticed them. After all,
the accusations are much too serious. Discredit is thrown upon the
voices of 15 senators, 211 congressmen and U.S. President Barack
Obama. I repeat, it’s a purely political matter, especially since
there is only two months left before April 24, when the US President
will address to the US Armenian community," Manoyan emphasized.

Ankara’s nervousness in relation to the probable recognition of the
Armenian Genocide by the United States is quite explicable, as local
administration elections in Turkey are due on March 29. The ruling
AKP has to win the majority of votes and Erdogan has to convince his
electors of his faithfulness towards the Government and its bases. In
this chain we also find the trick used in Davos, which brought another
plus in favour of the Turkish Premier, but only in his country. By
the way, he counted exactly on that. But the point is not only the
home policy of Turkey. The point also lies in Turkey’s neighbours,
and namely – in Azerbaijan, Russia and Georgia. However, we’ll not
take Georgia into account since it’s a dependent and unsuccessful
country. As for Russia, it makes no difference to her whether the
USA will recognize the Genocide or not. She has her own interests
both in US-Russian and Russian-Turkish relations. There remains only
Azerbaijan and it is here that difficulties arise. Supposedly, Turkey
must support Baku in every matter, especially in the Karabakh issue
and in propagation of lie and calumny against the Armenians. However,
it was exactly Baku that began to hinder Turkey in implementing
her regional policy. Now all the statements of Erdogan and other
high-ranking officials imply that the day when Ankara will move
away from Baku is just round the corner. Too often do the Turkish
officials vow fidelity and support in the Azeri media. By the way,
Turkish media rarely goes down to the level of Baku Agitation and
Propaganda Department, perfectly realizing what shape the wild
anti-Armenian hysteria can take. Moreover, an instructive example
for Baku should be the banning of the documentary "Sari Gelin" in
educational institutions of Turkey.

It is quite likely that even if the USA does not recognize the Armenian
Genocide, President Barack Obama, keeping his pre-election promise,
will utter the word ‘genocide’, being in this regard the second
US president after Ronald Regan. By the way, the Armenian-Turkish
relations did not suffer then. Blackmail and threatening were put to
use but Regan acted the way he found necessary. Though at that time
there was no war in Iraq and Afghanistan, there was the USSR and there
were the American missiles installed in Turkey, in case a war would
break up against the "Empire of Evil". By the way, the missiles were
stationed at the border with Armenia… However, the point is not
the words but the tools of controlling this or that process both in
the region and in the whole world. Turkey has livened up lately and
it is beginning to dictate her terms to the USA and Israel, which is
quite unacceptable for these countries irrespective of the US-Israeli
interests in the region.