Armenia-Turkey Protocols are Dead: Cengiz Aktar

14:46 ¢ 13.03.10

With the adoption of the House Resolution on Thursday, March 4 in the
United States House of Representatives’ Foreign Relations Committee
regarding the Armenian Genocide, along with the adoption of a motion
Thursday in the Swedish Parliament, Turkey’s official denialist
positions have been hard hit, Turkish political analyst Cengiz Aktar
writes in Turkish news source Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review,
adding that the `the worst casualty of all is the death of the
Protocols signed between Armenia and Turkey in order to normalize
relations.’

According to Aktar, the adoption of the House Resolution in the US
subcommittee was already the last nail in the coffin of the Protocols.
Now with the Swedish motion they can be considered definitely dead.
The result means Armenia, Turkey and the remaining Caucasus countries
actually all lost.

In his opinion, the ratification process was hard hit first thanks to
remarks by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an who, despite his poor
insight on foreign affairs, cannot help himself but to speak out
exactly as he does at home. He connected the Protocols’ ratification
in Turkish Parliament with finding a solution to the Karabakh conflict
between Armenia and Azerbaijan. So it became clear that no
ratification could take place in the Turkish Parliament before the US
voting. That undoubtedly played a role in the Genocide bill being
passed in the US Foreign Relations Committee and now in the Swedish
Parliament.

`Delegations armed with excessive self-confidence, sure of their
denialist certitudes but basically unfamiliar with the issue, headed
to Washington. The meaning of the voting was exaggerated; Turkish
public opinion was ill-informed to a degree that today many people in
Turkey think that `the US has approved the Armenian Genocide,’ writes
Aktar.

Due to the negative environment created after these two events, the
intention to settle scores among Turkish politicians and the
opposition’s attempts to turn this event into an advantage, the
Protocols’ approval now cannot be thought of separately from the
Genocide bill in the US and the decision of the Swedish Parliament.

Tert.am