THEY WANTED AS BETTER, IT CAME OUT AS ALWAYS… FOR ARMENIA
Karine Ter-Sahakyan

PanARMENIAN.Net
28.04.2009 GMT+04:00

Most likely, in the near future the region awaits some changes,
in which the European Union with the program "Eastern Partnership"
can play rather an important role.

The US President’s clamorous speech of April 24 in which he called
the Armenian Genocide by its Armenian equivalent "Mets Yeghern",
cannot naturally suggest that changes have been introduced in the
foreign policy of the USA. Neither can we say that Obama was suddenly
smitten with love for the Armenian people. Everything is much simpler:
orally equaling the Holocaust with the Armenian Genocide, President
Obama actually deprived of juridical estimation the events of 1915
in the Ottoman Empire. Considerably much time will pass until the
Holocaust and Mets Yeghern become equivalent in the legal aspect.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Actually, one could say that Obama’s speechwriters
took care that ‘Peter is paid without robbing Paul’, although
Turkey remained dissatisfied. Sharp criticism from President Gul and
Premier Erdogan, together with the call of US Ambassador to Ankara
James Jeffrey addressed to the Foreign Ministry of Turkey, gave the
impression that Ankara was troubled even by such an address of the
US President to the Armenian community of America. Even the community
itself is discontent at the President’s words. Chairman of the Armenian
Assembly of America (AAA) Hirair Hovnanian sent an open letter to
President of the USA Barack Obama, in which he expressed the profound
disappointment of the Armenian Assembly of America at the fact that the
American President did not pronounce the words "Armenian Genocide" in
his statement issued on the 94th anniversary. The letter particularly
said: "Your use of the phrase ‘Mets Yeghern’ was an inadequate
substitute for ‘the Armenian Genocide’. It was a retreat from the
promises you made as a Presidential candidate. Armenians around the
world applauded your forthright stance when, on January 2008, you
promised, "As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide." Both
in Turkey and in today’s statement, you asserted that your view of
history with regard to what happened to the Armenian population in
Ottoman Turkey had not changed. Yet you clearly acquiesced to Turkish
demands to avoid using the word Genocide."

"Recently, Turkey has started to perceive Armenia in a more positive
light, though this is more the case with the European part of
Turkey. The majority still gives preference to Azeris, who’re
closer. But Armenians are close to us too," said Professor of Isik
University International Relations Department Bulent Aras. At the same
time the Turkish professor noted that no one in the world can hamper
normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations: neither Russia, nor the
US. "The negotiation process should involve Turkey and Armenia only,"
he stressed.

As far as the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is concerned, the
Turkish professor stated: "During the years of the First World War
in the Ottoman Empire not only Armenians, but also other nations,
including Turks suffered greatly". "The past should be left to
historians, and we should go on living in present. Why should we pass
through Georgia to visit Armenia or Turkey when there’s a shorter
way?" Aras noted.

The Turkish professor considers that after 1915 the Turks lost their
friends, Armenians. "Armenia, in the essence, is part of Anatolia,"
Aras believes. It is difficult not to reproach the professor for the
ignorance of his own history, especially that of the past 100 years.

But let us leave all these statements on the conscience of
Aras. Another point is important here: in the last 10-20 years the
policy of world powers, be it the USA or Russia, has not changed
towards the region, let alone towards the "Armenian question". The
opening of the Armenian-Turkish border is necessary for Russia to
withhold Turkey, while the USA needs it in order to reorient Armenia
towards the West and to pull it away from the Russian influence.

Most likely, changes are outlined in the region in the near future. And
it is connected not only and not so much with normalization of
Armenian-Turkish relations, but also with the general changes,
in which the European Union with the program "Eastern Partnership"
can play rather an important role. No matter how hard the European
Union tries to convince, the above-mentioned program is directed
towards weakening the positions of Russia in the region. And if the
Nabucco project should be realized too, one might as well speak of
just another failure of Russian diplomacy and geopolitics in the
region. As a result, Armenia will again be forced to lose something,
obtaining in response ephemeral statements about "friendship"…