‘OH, WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE, WHEN FIRST WE PRACTICE TO DECEIVE!’

Panorama.am
16:11 09/02/2010

The title of this article, taken from Walter Scott’s epic poem, the
Marmion, aptly describes the web of deceit weaved by Turkey’s leaders
in seeking to create the false impression of wanting to normalize
relations with Armenia.

Under the guise of opening the border and establishing diplomatic
relations with Armenia, Turkish officials actually intended to:
1) extract concessions from Armenia – returning Karabagh (Artsakh)
to Azerbaijan, forming a historical commission to review the facts
of the Genocide, and blocking territorial demands from Turkey; 2)
prevent the acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide by third countries,
particularly the United States; and 3) generate a positive image in
order to facilitate Turkey’s entry into the European Union.

If Turkey was sincere in its expressed desire to open the border with
Armenia, it could have done so just as easily and quickly as it did
when closing it in 1993. There was no need for lengthy negotiations,
convoluted protocols, and parliamentary ratification. Furthermore,
rather than demanding concessions, Turks should have offered
inducements to Armenia for agreeing to open the border, because with
closed borders, Turkey cannot join the EU.

Ever since April 22, 2009, when the first concrete step was taken
by the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Turkey by issuing a roadmap
for normalizing their relations, Turkish leaders continued to state
that they won’t open the border with Armenia without first resolving
the Artsakh conflict. Even after signing the Protocols on October 10,
2009 and submitting them to Parliament eleven days later, the Turkish
government still insisted that the border would remain closed until
Artsakh was returned to Azerbaijan.

Since none of the major powers supported the precondition on
Artsakh, Turkey’s leaders used the January 12, 2010 verdict of
Armenia’s Constitutional Court as a new excuse for not ratifying the
Protocols in the last four months. Even though the Court ruled that the
obligations stipulated by the Protocols complied with the constitution,
the Ankara leadership expressed dissatisfaction in order to cover up
its intent not to ratify the Protocols. Turkey demanded that the Court
"correct" its decision, just because it had blocked the unwarranted
interpretations and preconditions of the Turkish side.

Unable to convince Armenia to meet their demands, Turkish officials
approached Russia, the United States, and Switzerland (the mediator
on the Protocols) to apply pressure on Armenia "to correct" the
Constitutional Court’s decision. Once again, the Turks were rebuffed.

Last week, Turkey stumbled on a new excuse not to ratify the Protocols
— the announcement by Cong. Howard Berman (Dem.-CA), Chairman of
the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that his panel would take up
the Armenian Genocide resolution on March 4.

Even though the genocide resolution is unrelated to the Protocols, a
few days before Cong. Berman’s announcement, Turkey’s new Ambassador
to Washington, Namik Tan, warned the U.S. Congress against such a
move and boldly predicted that such a resolution would not come up
for a vote "this year or anytime in the future." Amb. Tan’s warning
clearly exposed Turkey’s hidden agenda to bury the acknowledgment of
the Armenian Genocide at every opportunity.

Now that the genocide resolution is scheduled for a vote, what would
the Turks do? They are caught in their own web of deceit! If they
rush to ratify the Protocols in order to prevent the adoption of the
resolution, they would antagonize their Azeri ally and create internal
political turmoil. On the other hand, If they does not ratify the
Protocols very soon, there is a high probability that the genocide
resolution would receive congressional approval this year.

Meanwhile, Washington is losing patience with Turkey’s repeated excuses
for dragging its feet on the Protocols. In retaliation, the Obama
administration could use the genocide resolution as a stick to prod
Turkey into ratifying the Protocols. Moreover, Turkey cannot count on
much political support from Israel or American-Jewish organizations in
order to block the genocide resolution, due to the incessant insults
hurled by Prime Minister Erdogan at Israeli leaders over the past year.

By refusing to ratify the Protocols, Turkey has taken away from the
Obama administration its excuse for not acknowledging the Armenian
Genocide. Despite his repeated campaign promises, Pres. Obama
refrained from using the term Armenian Genocide in his April 24,
2009 statement. He had unwisely adopted the duplicitous Turkish line
that third countries should not acknowledge the Armenian Genocide,
while Armenia and Turkey were trying to normalize their relations.

It is noteworthy that when Philip Gordon, Assistant Secretary of
State, was asked last week to comment on the likely impact of the
Armenian Genocide resolution on the Protocols, he insisted that they
be ratified without preconditions. Significantly, he did not use the
occasion to express any opposition to the resolution.

Any attempt by the administration to block the congressional resolution
would be highly embarrassing for Pres. Obama, Vice President Joe Biden
and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, since all three as Senators
and presidential candidates had issued strong statements in support
of acknowledging the Armenian Genocide.

Since Obama administration officials have repeatedly stated that the
Protocols have no preconditions, then there should be no reason for
them to object to the adoption of the genocide resolution.

It should be stated that in normal circumstances there would be no
need for further action by the President or Congress on recognition
of the Armenian Genocide which is already an acknowledged fact. In
1975 and 1984, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted resolutions
recognizing the Genocide and Pres. Reagan acknowledged it in his
Presidential Proclamation of 1981. However, in view of Turkey’s
devious designs to roll back the international recognition of the
Armenian Genocide, it is imperative that the United States government
reaffirm its acknowledgment. This would also be an appropriate
response to the deceptive Turkish tactics of using the Protocols to
extract concessions, under the false pretense of opening the border
with Armenia.

By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier