AMERICAN TURKS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN AGAINST ARMENIAN DIASPORA

Trend
Dec 2 2009
Azerbaijan

The Turkish community in the U.S. launched a campaign against the
Armenian diaspora this week. The Turkish American Council appealed to
Turks living and working in Washington, asking them to lobby Congress
and stunt the Armenian diaspora’s efforts to derail the critical path
to rapprochement undertaken by Armenia and Turkey.

The Armenian community in the U.S. is looking to pass a resolution
falsely accusing Turkey of genocide, the organization said.

The Turkish American Council asked Turks living in the U.S. to contact
their members of Congress, and "to stand up for regional peace and
against false accusations and anti-Turkish hatred."

The organization added that the Azerbaijani diaspora supports their
campaign a great deal.

"Many Azerbaijanis are contacting us and expressing a willingness to
influence Congress members," a community representative said.

The Turkish diaspora said the Armenian diaspora in the U.S. is against
Armenia and Turkey normalizing relations.

Turkey and Armenia have no diplomatic relations, but signed a protocol
to establish diplomatic ties and a protocol to develop bilateral
relations in Zurich Oct. 10. These protocols must be ratified by the
parliaments of both countries to come into force.

The American-Armenians noted that a committee will be established in
the future to investigate the history of the 1915 events in accordance
with the signed protocols. They claim that the step is a tactic to
hide the "genocide" against the Armenian people.

The Turkish American Council thinks that Armenians are not only
continuing their occupying policy in the region, but are also
interfering in regional cooperation. Diaspora representatives say
they are going to actualize all these issues in high-level Turkish-U.S.

dialogue.

On Dec. 7, Turkish Prime Minister Receb Erdogan will meet with U.S.

President Barack Obama in Washington to discuss the Armenian-Turkish
protocols. Turkey plans to state once again that without progress in
the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, the protocols will be difficult
to ratify. Erdogan and Obama will discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh peace
process and the Nabucco project.