OBAMA, TURKEY AND ARMENIA
By Ara Khachatourian

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Monday, April 6, 2009

"Well, my views are on the record and I have not changed those views,"
President Obama told a joint news conference with Turkish President
Abdullah Gul. "I want to focus not on my views right now, but on the
views of the Turkish and Armenian people. If they can move forward
and deal with a difficult and tragic history, then I think the entire
world should encourage that."

Obama made the same point when he addressed the Turkish parliament
later in the day. "I know there are strong views in this chamber
about the terrible events of 1915, and while there has been a good
deal of commentary about my views, it is really about how the Turkish
and Armenian people deal with the past," he said. "And the best way
forward for the Turkish and Armenian people is a process that works
through the past in a way that is honest, open, and constructive."

While unprecedented for a recent American president to go to Turkey
and reaffirm his views on the Armenian Genocide, stopping short
of using the "G" word, it is also important to hold the president
to task and continue to urge him to honor his campaign promise of
properly recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

The problematic parts of Obama’s debut in Turkey are:

In asking Turkey to deal with its history, he placed the same onus
on Armenians–the acknowledged victims of the Genocide, which Turkey
still continues to deny;

Encouraging Turkey to play a more central role in the resolution
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It was Turkey that closed its borders
with Armenia citing the Karabakh conflict and by doing so becoming
a de-facto party to the conflict. Obama’s expectation that Turkey
should play a pivotal role would hinder any progress made during the
conflict resolution process.

At the end of the day, Obama’s message was that normalization of
Turkish-Armenian relations must move forward.

On that front, this so-called deal to open the borders has hit a
couple of snags.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev announced that he would not go to Istanbul
for the UN Summit of Civilizations in protest over Turkey’s efforts
to open its border with Armenia. Despite phone calls from Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton and Gul urging him to change his mind,
Aliyev stuck to his guns and will not travel to Turkey.

On Sunday, Armenia’s foreign minister Eduard Nalbandian made one of
the more decisive statements on the border opening firmly saying that
there should be no preconditions to the process.

This came in response to an announcement Friday by Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who said the without a Karabakh
resolution there would be no border opening. This, coupled with
the continued push by Turkey to establish a historical commission to
address the Genocide issue prompted Nalbandian to assert: "It has been
said many times and I wish to stress again that the establishment of
Armenian-Turkish relations can not put into question the veracity of
the Armenian Genocide."

Were last week’s media reports touting an imminent deal on the border
opening premature? It is clear that there are many fundamental problems
in advancing Obama’s wish to further Turkish-Armenian dialogue.

In recent weeks, there has been significant discussion in Armenia about
this matter, all of which have focused on the Turkish perspective. Not
a day has gone by without an "expert" or "political scientist"
in Armenia discussing this issue. But none of them has opined or
presented a concrete perspective on how Armenia will benefit from
this border opening scheme.

Agreements signed hastily to fulfill one or another party’s desires
often lead to severe challenges in the future and can weigh down
several generations in the process.

Armenia is surrounded by hostile countries–it always has been. In
this effort to normalize relations, the Armenian government should
be cognizant that making huge concessions will push Armenia into a
corner and diminish any upper hand it may have in the region.