AMERICAN PROFESSOR THOMAS GOLTZ: "THE PEOPLE IN GOVERNMENT IN WASHINGTON SEEM TO WANT TO STICK THEIR FINGERS IN EVERYTHING, ALWAYS"

APA
April 26 2010
Azerbaijan

Washington. Isabel Levine – APA. "This is the second time as president
that Obama has avoided using the word "genocide" in connection
with the annual Armenian commemoration of April 24, 1915, and he
is already coming in for criticism by both Armenians and Turks;
the former because he did not use the word and from the latter for
referring to April 24 at all.

This is an annual game and underlines the differences between what
candidates for the presidency say before and after election", Thomas
Goltz, American journalist and adjunct professor of Political Science
at Montana State University told APA’s Washington correspondent. "As
for the impact of this on the so-called reconciliation process between
Armenia and Turkey is hard to tell, but my sense is what Obama says
or doesn’t say on April 24 is a tiny part of that process at best,
and even less on the Nagorno-Karabakh process", said Thomas Goltz.

Regarding the Turkey-Armenia rapprochement supported by US, the Montana
professor said: "I think on the issue whether the US should stand aside
and let the Turks and Armenians figure out things between themselves,
my personal attitude is just that. But I suspect that my opinion on
that matter is not shared by the people in government in Washington,
who seem to want to stick their fingers in everything, always".

Goltz said he was fully aware of the dip in US-Azerbaijani ties. "I
am worried by the dip in US-Azerbaijani ties that culminated with
Azerbaijan’s public criticism of US policy towards Azerbaijan in
general and Mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh in particular, which seems
titled toward coddling the Armenians. My views on that issue are well
known and usually described as ‘pro-Azerbaijan.’ Sadly, I am not a
policy-maker in Washington DC but a mere adjunct professor in the
mountains of Montana", he said.