TURKEY’S TACTICS IN RESPONSE TO PASSING OF GENOCIDE BILLS: HARUT SASSOUNIAN
Tert.am
10:31 ~U 01.04.10
The Turkish government has been receiving a succession of bad news in
recent weeks. Its persistent policy of denial of the Armenian Genocide
suffered serious setbacks when the Foreign Affairs Committee of the
US House of Representatives, the Swedish Parliament, and Catalonia’s
regional Parliament in Spain adopted resolutions acknowledging the
Armenian Genocide, writes Harut Sassounian in The California Courier.
Turkish denialists are terrified by these official acknowledgments
on the eve of the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. They are
even more alarmed by the fact that the parliaments of Bulgaria, Israel,
Serbia, and Spain are about to consider similar resolutions in April.
The Turkish leadership was under the mistaken impression that the
Protocols signed with Armenia six months ago would end any further
action on the Armenian Genocide by the international community. In
fact, Turkey had viewed these Protocols as a last ditch effort to stem
the tide of such acknowledgments in the future. Its devious strategy
almost worked, as the genocide resolutions in both Sweden and the
US Congress were adopted by a mere one vote majority. The opponents
of these resolutions specifically cited the "reconciliation" between
Armenia and Turkey as their reason for voting against them.
Alarmed by these developments, and distracted by serious internal
problems, the Turkish government has initiated, perhaps a little too
late, a series of actions, hoping to prevent further defeats on the
Armenian Genocide issue.
These actions range from using harsh, bullying tactics against
countries that dare to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, and a soft
approach to mislead the international community into thinking that
the Turkish government is being more accommodating towards Armenians.
Among the Turkish bullying tactics against countries acknowledging
the genocide are:
— Recalling its ambassador;
— Cancelling military contracts; and
— Boycotting the purchase of consumer goods.
Last week, Turkish officials added a new twist, threatening to sue the
more than 20 countries that have already acknowledged the Armenian
Genocide. This is one of the many bluffs Turkish leaders use from
time to time to discourage additional countries from acknowledging
the Genocide.
Turkey’s more clever tactics, using soft gloves at the advice of
western public relations agents, include:
— Renovating a couple of historic Armenian churches, while thousands
of others are converted to mosques, stables, residences or simply
ruined.
— The "gracious" gesture of allowing religious services to be
performed once a year for a limited number of people and limited
duration to be determined by Turkish authorities, at the 10th century
Holy Cross Armenian Church at Akhtamar Island, on Lake Van.
— Reviewing the possibility of lifting the ban on children of refugees
from Armenia to attend private Armenian schools in Istanbul.
— A "show" meeting held last week between Prime Minister Erdogan
and the head of Istanbul’s Sourp Prgich Armenian hospital, who was
wrongly named as the leader of Turkey’s Armenian community. This
meeting was more akin to a slave being summoned by his master.
— Finally, Foreign Minister Davutoglu came up last week with a
new ploy to divide the Armenian Diaspora: he announced that the
Turkish authorities will initiate "dialogue" with "reasonable Diaspora
Armenians," meaning Armenians who do not mind selling out the Armenian
Cause for their own ego and personal gain.
Clearly, Turkish officials are resorting to all possible means,
including the continued exploitation of the defunct Protocols,
to discourage additional countries from acknowledging the Armenian
Genocide.