NRC International, Netherlands
March 5 2010

Turkish-American relations strained by mention of genocide

Published: 5 March 2010 17:09 | Changed: 5 March 2010 17:18

A US House of Representatives committee resolution containing a much
maligned word has set off a row between Washington and Ankara. By Bram
Vermeulen in Istanbul

It is not like it is the first time the United States has let its
loyal Nato ally in the Muslim world down. But that is how indignant
the Turkish response to the decision by the American House of
Representatives’ foreign affairs committee was.

On Thursday, the committee passed a resolution condemning the mass
killings of Armenians in 1915 as `genocide’. Immediately, the Turkish
ambassador in Washington was ordered to return. Prime minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan condemned the resolution in the harshest terms: `We are
being accused of a crime we did not commit’. And analysts were quick
to point out Turkish-American relations could suffer at a time the
Americans need Turkey’s help the most, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran.

Live broadcast

For hours on end, Turkish TV offered a live broadcast of the House
committee as it counted votes. It was reported with the same vigour as
an important football match would, only here history was at stake. For
a long time, the vote seemed to be turning out `in our favour’, as
Turkish TV hosts, viewers calling in, and parliamentarians put it. But
finally, the resolution [link] stating `the Armenian Genocide was
conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923,’
passed with a narrow 23 to 22 majority. Pressure from the Obama
administration to reject the resolution proved in vain.

The foreign affairs committee has passed similar resolutions on to the
House seven times before. The last time was in 2007, when it was
shelved under pressure from the Bush administration.

`Have we forgotten people have been at this game since 1975?’ the
former Turkish foreign affairs minister Ilter Türkmen wondered out
loud as he was following the voting on Turkish TV on Thursday night.
`Apparently the Armenian lobby feels it is necessary to refresh our
memory repeatedly.’

But the Armenians could yet become the resolution’s biggest victims,
Turkish minister of foreign affairs Ahmet Davutoglu warned on Friday.
In October, Davutoglu signed a protocol promising to establish
diplomatic ties, open the border dividing the two nations, and instate
an historical commission composed of experts from both countries to
study the events of 1915. `It not fair to blame Turkey for the fact
these protocols haven’t been ratified yet,’ Davutoglu said. Resistance
has been coming from the Armenian side as well, including the
Armenian-American lobby that was so successful in pushing for the
House resolution in recent weeks.

In the past, the pro-Israel lobby US opposed similar resolutions, but
it has been loath to come to Turkey’s defence since its criticism of
Israel attack on the Gaza strip last winter. Turkish minister of
foreign affairs said, adding that foreign pressure could only serve to
damage the peace process between his country and its Christian
neighbour.

Turkey against the world

On the Turkish streets, far removed from international diplomacy, one
message was heard loud and clear: the world is against us, and it has
been since the Ottoman Empire fell. `An old friend will never become
an enemy, an old enemy never a friend,’ shoemaker Ismet Cahmak mumbled
on Friday morning. `This vote proves the Christian community is
unified in its struggle against us Muslims.’

Genocide denial strikes at the heart and soul of the Turkish Republic,
as it was formed at the beginning of the last century. The Turks do
not deny that Armenians were killed en masse in 1915, even if their
official estimates (300,000) are far lower than most historians’ (1 to
1.5 million). The Turks argue that the Armenians were fighting with
the Russians when the Ottoman Empire was torn apart by the West on one
side and Russia on the other, in this particularly bloody episode of
the First World War.

`The truth is, the Armenians revolted against us,’ said former
minister Türkmen. `This is a matter of pride and an affront to the
true nature of history. It is also an attack on the integrity of our
borders. In a recent ruling, an Armenian court upheld the country’s
claim to West-Armenia [eastern Turkey],’ he added.

Admitting to genocide would be paramount to denying the Turkish
Republic’s right to exist. The modern republic was founded on the
smouldering remains of the Ottoman Empire. According to historian
Taner Akcam, the Turkish national identity is defined by the
humiliation of the empire’s downfall. This has endowed Turks with a
strong sense that it is them against the world, he said.

In his book From Empire to Republic, Akcam described how Turkish
writers and journalists in the 1920s dedicated themselves to writing
exclusively positive stories about their compatriots, responding to
the inferiority complex the loss of an empire had caused. Listening to
Turkish reporters’ `us against them’ narrative broadcast from
Washington DC on Thursday night, one might think little had changed.

On Friday, Istanbul’s Armenian neighbourhoods also proved wary of the
American resolution. `The people who took this decision didn’t do so
because they care for Armenians and their fate,’ refrigerator
repairman Anton Sasmaz said. `It is all about their own interests. The
world will come to see Turkey in an even more negative light. Our
membership of the European Union will be further away than ever. What
good does that do us?’

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