ANCA: ERDOGAN PRESSES ADVANTAGE DURING WASHINGTON VISIT
armradio.am
09.12.2009 12:44
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having secured at least
temporarily, the silence of yet another Administration on the Armenian
Genocide, has used his U.S. visit to further press Turkey’s advantage
– dramatically escalating his genocide denial rhetoric, reinforcing
Turkey’s "Protocols" preconditions for lifting its blockade of Armenia,
and attempting to use Ankara’s new found leverage in the Nagorno
Karabakh peace process to deliver a pro-Azerbaijani settlement of this
conflict, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
"Today, more than seven months into the silence of yet another U.S.
Administration on the Armenian Genocide, it’s painfully clear that
Erdogan has not, as President Obama had hoped, moved toward a full,
frank and just acknowledgement of the facts – but rather sprinted in
exactly the opposite direction, dramatically ramping up his denial
rhetoric and pressing more aggressively against U.S. recognition of
this crime," said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. "As
we’ve said from day one, for Erdogan and his government, the Protocols
are not about peace. They represent simply another tactic by Turkey
to extend U.S. complicity in Turkey’s denials from one April 24th to
the next," added Hamparian.
In addition to escalating his Armenian Genocide denial demands,
Erdogan also made clear that his government would not respect
either of the two U.S. priorities for Turkey-Armenia normalization:
no preconditions and a reasonable timeframe. He continued to press
for both the two Turkish preconditions hardwired into the Protocols,
namely a historical "commission" and the confirmation of borders,
as well as a third unwritten precondition that the Nagorno Karabakh
issue be settled to Azerbaijan’s satisfaction. At the same time,
he firmly established that Turkey does not feel any obligation to
move forward in a timely manner.
During his think tank appearances, Prime Minister Erdogan pontificated
– often in a lecturing and self-righteous tone – on a broad range of
topics, from foreign policy to climate change and world poverty. The
formats of these presentations, which featured highly controlled
third-party participation, lent themselves to this type of one-way
communication. The only exceptions were the few questions, submitted
in writing, dealing with the Armenian Genocide and freedom of speech
in Turkey. Both of these topics sparked angry and unscripted responses
from Erdogan.
Asked during his Johns Hopkins presentation by ANCA Communications
Director Elizabeth Chouldjian about his thoughts on repeated statements
by President Obama that his views had not changed on the "events on
1915," Erdogan descended into a strident diatribe of denial of the
Armenian Genocide, dismissing decades of scholarship documenting the
systematic destruction of the Armenian population from 1915-1923. "My
ancestors have never committed genocide," asserted Erdogan. "This is,
in my opinion, not possible… Those people who speak of genocide,
I don’t know what documentation they base it on."
Asked about recent Congressional rebuke of media repression in Turkey,
Prime Minister Erdogan denied that there are restrictions on the
press in Turkey, stating, "The press in Turkey is perhaps freer than
the press in the U.S. – much more so, in my opinion."
At SETA-DC, in response to a question on the ratification timeline
of the Turkey-Armenia protocols, Prime Minister Erdogan stated
that: "There are certain connections, which need to be taken into
consideration, the first one of which being the relations between
Azerbaijan and Armenia. There is at the moment this concern in the
Parliament and that’s why we called the MINSK group – the United
States, Russian Federation and France especially – to move forward in
this area. If they can work on the Nagorno-Karabakh problem between
Azerbaijan and Armenia, which has been ongoing for the last 20 years
and if progress can be made towards a solution to the problem of
Nagorno-Karabakh, then not only will problems between Azerbaijan and
Armenia be resolved but also there will be a positive contribution to
the process between Turkey and Armenia, whereby the parliaments will
reflect upon their work, the good will and progress in the issue of
Nagorno-Karabakh, and this what we would like to see happen."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
