ANKARA RESPONDS TO OBAMA’S MESSAGE
news.az
APril 26 2010
Azerbaijan
Barack Obama Barack Obama has declined to use the word ‘genocide’
to describe the atrocities experienced by Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire a century ago.
In Ankara, reactions were mixed. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
appeared to welcome the statement, saying on Saturday that ‘Turkey’s
sensitivities have been observed’ and that Obama’s refusal to call
the 1915 events ‘genocide’ was due to the diplomatic efforts of Turkey.
But the Foreign Ministry, in a written statement, called Obama’s
statement an ‘incorrect and one-sided political perception’.
‘We deeply regret this statement which reflects an incorrect and
one-sided political perception. The toughest enemy of the historical
facts is subjective memory records. No nation has the right to impose
its memory records on another nation,’ the Foreign Ministry statement
indicated.
The statement further added that ‘third counties have neither the
right nor the authority to judge the history of Turkish-Armenian
relations with political motives’.
The opposition parties, which object to the government’s efforts to
restore relations with Armenia, were also unhappy with the statement.
Onur Oymen, the deputy chairman of the main opposition Republican
People’s Party (CHP), said the use of the term ‘Mets Yeghern’ was no
different from using the word ‘genocide’, while Nationalist Movement
Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli called Obama’s terminology a ‘play of
words’ that meant his accusations against the Turkish nation remained
in place. Bahceli also accused Erdogan of sharing the same position as
the Armenian diaspora by welcoming Obama’s statement and reiterated
his call for the withdrawal of two protocols signed by Turkey and
Armenia on normalizing bilateral relations.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu criticized Obama’s statement
and said that it was ‘unacceptable’.
‘If we are going to share grief for humanitarian reasons, then we
would expect respect for our own grief as well,’ Davutoglu said.
The Turkish Coalition of America also said Obama’s statement did not
address ‘the equally tragic loss of Muslim lives in this turbulent
period of Ottoman history’.
‘Where does the ethnic cleansing of Ottoman Turks from the Balkans,
Eastern Turkey and the Caucasus – with 5 million lost and 5.5 million
refugees – come on the president’s list of ‘worst atrocities of the
20th century’?’ Turkish Coalition of America President G. Lincoln
McCurdy said.
Armenians in the US, on the other hand, were disappointed that the
statement did not include the word genocide. ‘Today we join with
Armenians in the United States and around the world in voicing our
sharp disappointment at the president’s failure to properly condemn
and commemorate the Armenian Genocide,’ Armenian National Committee
of America Chairman Ken Hachikian said.
Obama is closely watching rapprochement efforts between Turkey and
Armenia, which are full of difficulties.
Ankara and Yerevan signed protocols for reconciliation in October
envisaging the reopening of the borders and the establishment of
diplomatic relations. But the protocols need to be approved by the
parliaments of both countries.
Just a few days before 24 April, Armenia’s ruling coalition on 22
April said it had decided to freeze the ratification of the protocols.
The Armenian government claimed that the Turkish side had refused to
fulfill the requirement of ratifying the accords without preconditions
in a reasonable time.
The Turkish parliament has held up ratification of the deal as Turkey
presses for a settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan over a region
in Azerbaijan that has been under Armenian control since a war in the
1990s. But Turkish officials, including Foreign Minister Davutoglu and
President Abdullah Gul, have voiced their expectations that the freeze
in the normalization process between Ankara and Yerevan will serve as
an opportunity for both sides to thoroughly consider the rest of the
process with a mutual understanding of the difficulties on each side.