TURKS IN FEAR THAT OBAMA WILL USE THE ‘GENOCIDE’ WORD OVER ARMENIANS
Right Vision News
March 31, 2010 Wednesday
ISTANBUL, March 31 — Turkey’s government has started a charm
offensive to show it cares about its Armenian minority, only a week
after it caused an outcry by threatening to expel tens of thousands
of Armenians.
According to our correspondent, ankara is anxious to avoid anything
that could lead the United States to officially recognise the mass
killings of Armenians in 1915 as genocide. Minds are focused on April
24, the day the US president Barack Obama will deliver a traditional
statement commemorating the massacres in Anatolia that began on that
day in 1915. Ankara wants to make sure that Mr Obama’s statement will
not include the word genocide, a term that Turkey rejects.
"If he does not use the g-word, all is fine," one Turkish diplomat
said.
Yesterday, it emerged that the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton,
assured Turkey the White House opposes a congressional resolution
labelling the massacres as genocide. The Turkish foreign ministry
issued the statement after a telephone call between Mrs Clinton and
Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday.
Turkey fears that recognition of the massacres as genocide by the US
could trigger a wave of similar decisions around the world and even
lead to compensation claims. In protest against a decision by the
foreign committee of the US House of Representatives to recognise the
Armenian genocide, Turkey recalled its ambassador from Washington
earlier this month. The diplomat is not going to be sent back to
his post until after April 24, a sign of the seriousness of the rift
between the two close allies.
But Turkey’s efforts to counter pressure from politicians and the
Armenian community in the US, who want Washington to recognise the
genocide, hit a snag when Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister,
said he may throw tens of thousands of illegal Armenians out of
the country.
Speaking to the Turkish service during a visit to London on March 16,
Mr Erdogan said there were 70,000 Turkish citizens of Armenian descent
and another 100,000 illegal Armenians in Turkey. "If necessary, I may
have to tell them to go back to their country," Mr Erdogan said. "I
am not obliged to keep them here."
His remarks, coming after Sweden’s parliament accepted a resolution
recognising the genocide following the US committee decision, triggered
an uproar in Turkey and also Armenia, where the government said Mr
Erdogan’s statement recalled the memories of 1915. Turkish media
accused the prime minister of treating Armenians in Turkey as pawns
in an effort to keep foreign countries from recognising the genocide.
Mr Erdogan said his words had been misrepresented in news reports. But
shortly afterwards, the prime minister started a series of gestures
designed to show the public that his government does not target
Armenians. Mr Erdogan himself met leaders of the Turkish-Armenian
community in his residence in Ankara on Friday.
Meanwhile, the ministry of culture gave the green light for Armenians
to celebrate mass once a year in a restored island church in the
south-eastern part of the country, and one of Mr Erdogan’s deputies
promised to work to make sure that children of Armenians living
illegally in Turkey could get an education.
Bedros Sirinoglu, a leading member of the Armenian community in
Turkey, speaking after his meeting with Mr Erdogan, said he rejected
the term genocide. "It was a confrontation between two close friends
that unfortunately ended badly," he said. He added that the number
of illegal Armenians in Turkey was around 40,000, not 100,000. His
own community had provided Mr Erdogan with the inflated figure and
apologised to him, he said.
Mr Sirinoglu, whose grandfather perished in the massacres, stressed
that Turkey and the world should move on. "There is no use in dwelling
on this too much," he said. "We have to forget this, we have to look
to the future." As Mr Sirinoglu echoed Ankara’s official line, one
newspaper called him "an Armenian to the prime minister’s taste".
Armenia and many international scholars say the government of modern
Turkey’s predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, tried to wipe out its
Armenian population during the First World War, and that up to 1.5
million were killed. Turkey does not deny that innocent people died,
but puts the number of victims much lower. It also says the deaths
were the unintended consequences of a relocation campaign under wartime
conditions and that many Muslim Turks were killed by Armenian groups.
Despite their differences, Turkey and Armenia signed ground-breaking
agreements last year that included pledges to open the border between
the countries and establish a joint committee of experts to look at
the events of 1915. Neither side has ratified the agreements so far.
Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister and one of the architects
of the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, said his country was still
trying to reach out to Armenians everywhere. Ankara even wants direct
contact with the Armenian diaspora, traditionally seen as a sworn
enemy by Turkey, the minister said, according to the Radikal newspaper.
As an example for Ankara’s readiness to face the past, Mr Davutoglu
pointed to a passage for a speech he had prepared for the signing
ceremony of the Turkish-Armenian protocols last October. There were
no speeches at the ceremony because each side protested against what
the other one was planning to say.
"We have to employ empathy to understand what Armenians experienced,
what they felt and what happened to them afterwards," Mr Davutoglu
said, summing up his speech. "But they also have to respect our
memory." Published by HT Syndication with permission from Right
Vision News.