NAZARIAN: DAVUTOGLU’S ILL CONCEIVED PLANS TO ENGAGE THE DIASPORA ARMENIANS
Ara Nazarian
Armenian Weekly
Apr 16 2010
Ahmet Davutoglu
For years, the Turkish official policy was to sow seeds of division
between Armenians who still reside in Turkey, those residing in
Armenia and the Diasporans by categorizing them as the good, the
workable and the ugly. The Turkish Government knew full well that the
Armenians in Turkey had to be very careful in their expressions, as
their lives and those of their families along with their livelihood
and belongings could be jeopardized very easily. So, at times these
Armenians and the community leadership had to repeat official Turkish
propaganda in order to stay safe, hence the good Armenian label. The
workable group was referred to the Armenians in Armenia, who were
lead to believe that the financial ills of their landlocked country
will be alleviated the moment the Turkish-Armenian border was opened
and economic activity would abound between the two nations (as a case
in point, Turkey promised the EU to open the Cyprus border many years
ago, yet no such action has taken place). If the Turkish government
was so worried about these Armenians, financial well being, why did
it close the borders in the first place? And why did it need a set
of Protocols to open them now? Finally, the ugly group was referred
to the Armenian Diaspora, who are by majority the direct descendants
of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide with millennial roots in
Western Armenia (Eastern Anatolia) with both land and financial claims.
After the failure of the recent "rapprochement" efforts, by way of the
protocols, directly due to the insincere nature of Turkey’s policies
in this arena, Mr. Davutoglu is aiming to engage the Armenian Diaspora
as a means to buy more time towards its denial campaign. Therefore, he
has instructed his ambassadors and consuls general in North America to
reach out to the Armenian Diaspora. They have stratified the Armenian
Diaspora into three groups: "those who derive benefits from claims of
(genocide), those who migrated from Turkey but still have contacts
there and those who are in the middle. Seeking ways to establish
dialogue with these groups, the ambassadors and consuls general will
particularly focus on the second (middle) group." Mr. Davutoglu’s
double entendre is not coincidental, neither is the real target of
his latest "dialogue" efforts, as he is well aware of the tight rope
that an Armenian who lives in Boston but is originally from Istanbul
and still has friends and family in Turkey must walk to engage in a
"dialogue" with the Turkish government.
The Turkish Government is eons away from acknowledging the sins of its
forefathers, as it is painfully demonstrated by the remarks made by
Mr. Davutoglu’s boss, the Turkish Prime Minister. Mr. Davutoglu knows
full well that the Turkish Archives have been cleansed of incriminating
evidence over the past 95 years: Mr. Davutoglu knows that his boss
has just threatened to deport 100,000 Armenian from Turkey, who are
working there illegally, a grossly overestimated figure, but one that
resonates painfully with the Diaspora Armenians whose families have
tasted the realities of Turkish "deportation" efforts: Mr. Davutoglu
knows that his boss has categorically rejected the Armenian Genocide
and has said that the Ottoman Empire even gave pocket money to the
deportees to help with their journeys: Mr.
Davutoglu knows that his boss has embraced President Bashir of Sudan
and declared upon his visit to Sudan that he saw no genocide there:
and Mr. Davutoglu knows that his boss has cried Genocide in Israel
(victims: Palestinians) and China (victims: Uighurs) over the past
year or so, where there were none.
So, Mr. Davutoglu, whose Ministry could well be called Ministry of
Damage Control, is grasping at every straw to make its Armenian
problem go away; it tries to engage the Armenian Government with
insincere efforts, which it seems to have backfired now; it engages
in temper tantrums and blackmail when friends and allies dare to
speak about this issue; and now it is trying to engage the Diaspora
in a last ditch effort to salvage something out of the deadlocked
protocols. This is of great importance for the Turkish Government,
since its parliament is unlikely to ratify the protocols that were
supported heavy handedly by the U.S. Government; it is against
sanctions against Iran, another point of contention with the U.S.
government; and it has markedly ratcheted up its hostility towards
Israel, United States government’s most important ally. Therefore,
It is quite likely the United States might finally decide to
officially acknowledge the Armenian Genocide to let Turkey know of
its displeasure, and in the process it might have to dust off its
plans to bypass the Incirlik Base in Turkey as a supply route, since
there is a good chance that Turkey will block access to Incirlik,
albeit temporarily.
While the acknowledgement would be a great step for all humanity, it
would be one taken for all the wrong reasons, as the U.S. Government,
the so called champion of human rights in the world, should have
recognized the Armenian Genocide decades ago on its merits, as it
acknowledged the Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, the Rwandan
Genocide (albeit painfully belatedly) and the Darfur Genocide.