FROZEN PROTOCOLS…

Harut Sassounian

Lragir.am
28/04/10

And Warmed Over Obama Statement

Two developments on Armenian-Turkish issues spilled a lot of ink last
week. Neither one was significant, but assumed significance because
of extensive international media coverage.

On April 22, exactly a year after the release of the roadmap,
ostensibly to normalize Armenia-Turkey relations, and six months
after the infamous Protocols were signed by the two countries with
great fanfare, Pres. Serzh Sargsyan announced their suspension.

There was actually nothing new in this announcement. It has been
crystal clear for months that Turkey’s leaders never intended to
ratify the Protocols. They simply wanted to exploit them in order to
extract further concessions from Armenia. Turks repeatedly announced
that unless Armenia turned over Karabagh (Artsakh) to Azerbaijan,
the Turkish Parliament would not ratify the Protocols. As time went
by, Turkey added more inane demands, such as reversal of the Armenian
Constitutional Court’s decision, and withdrawal of genocide resolutions
from Parliaments of other countries. Since Armenia had repeatedly
announced that it would not be the first to ratify the Protocols,
the accords were already frozen for months, if not stillborn.

Even though some may view Pres. Sargsyan’s decision as a bold
move, it would have been far more preferable for him to withdraw
his country’s signature from the Protocols, since they were dead
in the water anyway. He could have easily blamed their collapse on
Turkey’s intransigence. He did acknowledge in his last week’s public
announcement that he decided to suspend the Protocols, after Russia,
France and the United States asked him not to abandon them completely.

Now that Armenia has blinked first, Turkey is blaming it for causing
the collapse of the Protocols. Armenia has thus helped Turkey to
wiggle its way out of the intense international pressure it was
subjected to in recent months for its failure to ratify them.

Moreover, as long as the Protocols are not completely discarded,
Turkey will continue to exploit them by cleverly claiming that it is
still committed to their ratification under the ‘right’ conditions,
and will use them as a viable tool to defeat all initiatives by third
countries on the Armenian Genocide.

Regrettably, Turkey is not the only country exploiting the Protocols.

Pres. Obama, after pressuring Armenia not to reject the Protocols,
dodged the term ‘Armenian Genocide’ once again in his annual
statement. He used as an excuse the non-existent ‘dialogue among
Turks and Armenians.’

Just as he had done last year, Pres. Obama substituted the term ‘Meds
Yeghern’ [Great Calamity] for the Armenian Genocide and used the same
worn out euphemisms and shameful word games for which, as a Senator
and presidential candidate, he had condemned Pres. George W. Bush.

The overwhelming majority of Armenian-Americans, who had supported
Obama’s candidacy and trusted him, now feel disillusioned and
deceived. He ran his campaign on the promise of change, only to
adopt the same immoral position of his predecessors, even though he
keeps saying that he has not changed his mind regarding his pledge
to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide!

In a column I wrote last year after Pres. Obama first broke
his campaign promise on the Armenian Genocide, I stated that
Armenian-Americans do not need to beg him to acknowledge the Genocide.

Thirty years ago, Pres. Reagan issued a Presidential Proclamation
referring to the Armenian Genocide. Therefore, Armenian-Americans
see no special advantage in a repeat statement by Pres. Obama. By
not keeping his word, however, Pres. Obama succeeded in undermining
his own reputation and credibility with the American people and world
public opinion.

It is simply mind-boggling that the President of the United States
would go out of his way to issue a statement that would alienate the
very people he is trying to accommodate.

Just imagine what the outcry would be had Pres. Obama referred to the
Holocaust as a massacre or a tragic event. Yet, this is exactly what
he has done on the Armenian Genocide by using a series of euphemisms
in his April 24 statement: ‘Dark past,’ ‘Dark moment in history,’
‘painful history.’ ‘awful events of 1915,’ ‘ a devastating chapter,’
‘one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century,’ ‘murder,’ and
‘terrible events.’ Pres. Obama’s aides could have spent their time
more usefully by reading a history book rather than a dictionary
of synonyms.

The only new idea in Pres. Obama’s April 24, 2010 statement is the
following brief sentence: ‘I salute the Turks who saved Armenians
in 1915.’ This is a commendable notion which unfortunately becomes
devoid of any meaning, in the absence of who or what exactly these
Armenians were saved from!

We all hope that the solemn commemorations next April 24 would not
be tarnished either by the Protocols (frozen or thawed) or by Pres.

Obama’s offensive statement!