news.az, Azerbaijan
March 13 2010
Recognition of massacres as genocide provides additional stumbling block
Sat 13 March 2010 | 05:16 GMT Text size:
Niklas Nilsson News.Az interviews Niklas Nilsson, Research Fellow, The
Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and the Silk Road Studies Program.
How would you comment on the resolution of the House of
Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee recognizing the killings of
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as ‘genocide’?
This is problematic for the US government and comes at a time when the
vote could seriously damage the US role in the normalization process
between Turkey and Armenia.
Secretary of state H.Clinton condemned this decision. Anyway how this
decision might harm Turkey-US relation? And how it will influence an
approaching process between Turkey and Armenia?
It reinforces those opinions in Turkey critical of warmer relations
with Armenia and undermines the US role as a mediator.
Do you believe in ratification of Turkish-Armenian protocols after that?
Difficult to say. The resolution on the genocide is just one issue of
many. But I think the way the process has developed over the last
months (Turkey connecting it to the Karabakh issue fex), plus the
resolution, makes it unlikely that the protocols can be ratified by
Turkey.
Do you expect any impact from this to the settlement of the Karabagh
problem between Azerbaijan and Armenia, taking into account that there
is a direct link between Turkish-Armenian normalization and the
settlement of this conflict?
Well, if the normalization process is connected to Karabakh, it
becomes impossible for Armenia, if not, then impossible for Turkey.
The recognition of the massacres as genocide provides an additional
stumbling block, as it undermines the US in the process and reinforces
Turkish opposition to the process.
Aliyah Fridman
News.Az