Author: Zaminian Bedik

Le Matin, Suisse
4 Mars 2010

Ankara fait pression sur Washington avant un vote sur le génocide arménien

La Turquie a multiplié jeudi les pressions pour empêcher le vote au
Congrès américain d’une résolution reconnaissant comme un génocide les
massacres d’Arméniens commis sous l’Empire ottoman.
AFP – le 04 mars 2010, 15h23

La Turquie a multiplié jeudi les pressions pour empêcher le vote au
Congrès américain d’une résolution reconnaissant comme un génocide les
massacres d’Arméniens commis sous l’Empire ottoman.

Alors que la commission des Affaires étrangères de la Chambre des
représentants américaine doit se réunir jeudi pour discuter une
résolution symbolique utilisant le terme de "génocide arménien", le
président turc Abdullah Gül a téléphoné à son homologue américain
Barack Obama.

Le ministre des Affaires étrangères Ahmet Davutoglu a quant à lui
appelé les parlementaires à voter "non" à la résolution.

"Les relations turco-américaines passent par une phase très importante
au cours de laquelle elle ont besoin d’une coopération stratégique au
plus haut niveau dans leur histoire", a déclaré M. Davutoglu à Ankara.

"Nous avons fait des pas très importants pour une normalisation
complète dans le Caucase. Il faut éviter de mettre ses efforts en
péril", a-t-il ajouté, faisant référence au processus de normalisation
de leurs relations entamé par la Turquie et l’Arménie.

M. Gül a eu tard mercredi une conversation avec M. Obama axée sur "les
questions concernant les relations bilatérales et les affaires
régionales", a affirmé à l’AFP un assistant du président.

Le quotidien Hürriyet a rapporté que M. Gül avait appelé son homologue
à user de son influence pour bloquer la résolution et prévenu que son
adoption pourrait nuire aux relations entre les deux alliés au sein de
l’Otan.

Le projet de résolution, un texte qui n’a pas force de loi, appelle le
président américain à "qualifier de façon précise l’extermination
systématique et délibérée de 1.500.000 Arméniens, comme un génocide".

Les dirigeants turcs n’ont pas donné de détails sur leur réaction en
cas d’adoption du texte, mais un responsable parlant sous le couvert
de l’anonymat a estimé que "toutes les options sont sur la table",
dont celle d’un rappel de l’ambassadeur.

En 2007, Ankara avait rappelé son ambassadeur quand la même commission
avait voté un texte analogue, ensuite bloqué sous la pression du
président de l’époque George W. Bush avant d’être présenté en
assemblée plénière.

Des députés turcs en visite à Washington cette semaine pour tenter de
convaincre les parlementaires américains ont dit s’attendre cette fois
à une vote serré.

"Si nous ne parvenons pas à bloquer (la résolution) au niveau de la
commission, nous l’arrêterons avant qu’elle arrive à la chambre des
Représentants", a déclaré l’un d’eux, Suat Kiniklioglu.

La question d’un génocide arménien est un champ de mines diplomatique.

Les Arméniens font pression pour que soient reconnus comme un génocide
les massacres et déportations qui, entre 1915 et 1917, ont tué selon
eux plus d’un million et demi d’entre eux.

La Turquie reconnaît qu’entre 300.000 et 500.000 personnes ont péri,
non pas victimes d’une campagne d’extermination mais selon elle dans
le chaos des dernières années de l’Empire ottoman.

Elle récuse la notion de génocide reconnue par la France, le Canada ou
le Parlement européen.

M. Obama, qui avait promis lors de sa campagne électorale la
reconnaissance du génocide arménien, a renoncé à employer ce terme
alors que les Etats-Unis soutiennent des efforts en cours pour une
ouverture de la frontière et l’établissement de relations
diplomatiques entre la Turquie et l’Arménie.

-info/monde/ankara-fait-pression-washington-vote-g enocide-armenien

Hamsayeh.Net , Iran
March 7 2010

Turkey will not be the one who loses: Erdogan.

March 06, 2010 (Hamsayeh.Net) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan warned Washington today that branding of Armenian massacre
during the World War one by the Ottoman Empire, as genocide would
seriously harm the two countries relations.

On Thursday, the US House of Representative passed a resolution, which
would oblige the US President to refer to this historical incident as
genocide. In reaction to the resolution, Ankara recalled its
ambassador from Washington for consultations.

The ambassador said he might have to stay in Ankara for a long time if
US does not back track from its position. `I will return when the time
is right … We will have to wait and see, however the consultations
could last a long time,’ Turkey’s ambassador to US said.

Erdogan also expressed disappointment by the decision saying,’ the
decision of the Foreign Affairs Committee will not hurt Turkey, but it
will greatly harm bilateral relations, interests and vision. Turkey
will not be the one who loses.’

Muslim Turkey has been a strong ally of the US in the last several
years. Strained relationship with Ankara could seriously harm US’s
military initiatives in the Middle East.

Trend, Azerbaijan
March 6 2010

Turkish PM: Turkey will not suffer from U.S. Congress’s decision

06.03.2010 17:51
"Ankara will not suffer from the U.S. Congress committee on foreign
affairs’ recognition of the so-called "Armenian genocide"," Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the meeting of ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP), CNN Turk TV channel reported.

"Turkey will not suffer from the decision of the U.S. Congress
committee on foreign affairs," Erdogan said.

The Prime Minister also said that a comedy was prepared at the
Congress and none of the congressmen has information about the
Ottoman’s history.

"Turkey is a democratic and legal state. The U.S. parliament’s
decision can not influence on Turkey at all," he added.

The Times: Armenia has no claims on land in eastern Turkey once formed
western Armenia

05.03.2010 21:43 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `The political battle in the United States over
recognition of the Armenian genocide boils down to a simple
calculation: is the cost in spoilt relations with Turkey outweighed by
respect for the memory of 1.5 million victims?’ The Times observer
Tony Halpin wrote in the article `Pragmatism, politics and the
festering wound of Armenian ‘genocide”.

President Obama promised during his election campaign to recognise the
massacres of 1915-23 as genocide at the annual commemoration on April
24, saying: `I believe that the Armenian Genocide is not an
allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a
widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical
evidence . . . As President, I will recognise the Armenian Genocide.’

`As Nato’s only Muslim member, with an important US air base at
Incirlik and involvement in key American defence projects such as the
troubled F35 fighter jet, Turkey has numerous cards to play.

But while it continually threatens Nato allies with repercussions,
relations with Russia, which has always recognised the Armenian
genocide, have never been warmer. Pragmatism in cosying up to its
principal gas supplier apparently trumps the tub-thumping employed in
the US, ` the article wrote.

The British Government has been similarly spineless on the Armenian
question, despite ample contemporary evidence, as a recent study, by
Geoffrey Robertson, of Foreign and Commonwealth Office evasiveness
showed. It refuses even to allow the Armenian genocide to be mentioned
on National Holocaust Memorial Day for fear of upsetting Turkey.

The irony is that modern Turkey is not being blamed for the past.
Armenia has recognised its current borders and has repeatedly stated
that it has no claims on land in eastern Turkey that once formed
western Armenia.

Reparations will be an issue for the reconciliation process. But for
the dwindling number of survivors and millions of descendants in
Armenia’s global diaspora, Turkish recognition of their suffering and
an apology would be the most valuable reparation of all,’ Tony Halpin
wrote.

FAAE vows to support Genocide recognition

01:27 pm | March 05, 2010 | Politics
hot-grigorian

The Forum of Armenian Associations of Europe (FAAE) congratulates
Armenians on the adoption the Armenian Genocide Resolution by the U.S.
House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

FAAE Chairman Ashot Grigorian announced that by April 24 European
Armenian organizations will do their best to support the Armenian
lobbyists and make the U.S. Congress finally recognize the Armenian
Genocide.

news.am, Armenia
March 5 2010

Erdogan’s response to Armenian Genocide resolution adoption: It was
comedy and political decision

18:04 / 03/05/2010In the course of his party conference Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan referred to the adoption of Armenian
Genocide resolution by the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee.

According to Turkish NTV, Erdogan labeled the resolution a comedy and
political decision.

Interestingly, one of the readers made a comment on this information,
saying `A political decision? If the committee does not pass this
resolution, wouldn’t it be a political decision? What else did you
expect? Or a House Committee should make scientific decisions?’

S.T.

Firm ties will survive genocide row

By Kevin Connolly
BBC News, Washington

Story from BBC NEWS:
americas/8552970.stm

Published: 2010/03/05 22:21:31 GMT

The centuries of bitterness that divide Christian Armenians and Muslim
Turks have spilled onto many battlefields, and it seems strange that
they should now be played out in the murmuring corridors and committee
rooms of the US House of Representatives.

But there is no doubt that the proceedings of the House Foreign
Relations Committee in Washington have become the most important
modern theatre of conflict in an ancient dispute.

At issue is a single word – genocide – and the question of whether or
not the United States should use it to characterise the deaths of the
hundreds of thousands of Armenians who perished as the Ottoman Empire
began to implode under the pressures of war in 1915.

To Turks the gravity of the charge is not softened by the passage of the years.

This is a deeply emotional question of national honour, and a charge
which threatens to put their nation on the wrong side of history.

To Armenians it is much more that a matter of historical fact –
recognition of their suffering represents an important step towards
establishing their identity as a nation in the eyes of the world.

To the Obama administration, it is a nightmare – a vivid reminder of
how the workings of American congressional democracy can conflict with
the realities of wielding power in the White House.

Coalition building

The issue of the Armenian genocide is kept alive in Washington by the
tireless efforts of Armenian lobbying organisations.

MASS KILLINGS OF ARMENIANS

Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians killed by Ottoman Turks in 1915-6
Many historians and the Armenian people believe the killings amount to genocide
Turks and some historians deny they were orchestrated
More than 20 countries regard the massacres as genocide

They are usually rated among the most effective in the United States.

Permanent lobbying works in a number of ways.

First and most obvious is the fact that there are congressional
districts with substantial Armenian-American populations –
representatives from those districts tend to identify strongly with
this issue.

Second is the lobbyists’ skill at collecting statements of support
from candidates in other races.

They have proved remarkably effective at collecting declarations from
politicians running for office which tie candidates to the Armenian
view of the issue.

That tireless, unglamorous work is an important part of the fabric of
American politics – and over time it allows lobbying groups to build
strong and lasting coalitions on Capitol Hill.

And that brings us to a major problem for the Obama administration.

Its three most senior figures – President Barack Obama himself,
Vice-President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton – have
all publicly identified with the Armenian view of the events of 1915.

That is going to make it more difficult for them to handle Turkish
anger over the congressional vote.

When the House Foreign Relations Committee approved the same
resolution back in 2007 the Bush administration was able to declare
immediately that it considered such statements to be the wrong way of
dealing with the issue.

It also worked hard to make sure that the issue did not work its way
on to the floor of the full House of Representatives.

Fallout

The Obama administration can certainly lean on House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi to make sure the fallout does not get any worse by ensuring
that any further resolutions are quietly placed on the back-burner.

Already it is being hinted that the motion will struggle to make it to
the floor of the House at a full session.

But the administration will simply have to live the awkward fact that
the Turkish government knows that three of the most senior politicians
in Washington are simply not on its side.

The secular – but overwhelmingly Muslim – Turkish state has been
hugely important to the United States since the early 1950s, when it
was developed as a powerful south-eastern bulwark in a Nato alliance
assembled to confront the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

It remains important now as a bridge into the Islamic world, as a
voice on hugely important regional issues like Afghanistan and Iran –
and perhaps above all as a neighbour of Iraq which has been happy to
host a strategically crucial US air base on its soil at Incirlik.

Turkey has angrily condemned the congressional vote and recalled its
Washington ambassador for consultations – just as it did after the
committee vote went against it in 2007.

French precedent

In theory it has no shortage of options for demonstrating its
displeasure with the United States.

In practice however, any reaction is likely to be symbolic and
limited. One reason to think so is simple enough.

` It is hard to imagine modern Turkey risking the wrath of the United
States by hindering the American withdrawal from Iraq next year ‘

Turkey has been through precisely this series of events before.

A French parliamentary vote supported the use of the word "genocide"
back in the 1990s.

While there was a period of tension and anger afterwards, in
diplomatic terms the sky did not fall.

France and Turkey remain important trading partners, just as they were before.

Another is more subtle. One of Turkey’s great strategic and economic
goals is eventual membership of the European Union, a project in which
it has the support of the United States.

At a time when things are not going well in that great project, it
would hardly make sense to alienate the United States as well.

So while there is no doubting the depth of Turkish anger on this
subject there are reasons to believe that the fallout will not be as
dramatic as first reports might have you believe.

While the issue is still immediate and important to both Armenians and
Turks, it is rooted in the ethnic tensions and resentments of a
vanished empire.

Uncertain prospects

It is hard to imagine modern Turkey risking the wrath of the United
States for example by hindering the American withdrawal from Iraq next
year as a reprisal.

The safest and cheapest routes for bringing American troops and
equipment out of much of Iraq lie through Turkey.

It would be a major decision if the Turkish government escalated this
disagreement by making the US evacuation more difficult.

So it is likely that this issue will quickly fade from the headlines
again – only to flare once more the next time a parliamentary
committee, here or elsewhere, puts it back on the agenda.

The lasting damage will not be in relations between Ankara and
Washington, but between Turkey and Armenia.

The process of establishing diplomatic relations was already proving
less than smooth and this certainly will not improve it.

The prospects for a joint historical mission to establish some kind of
agreed narrative about the events of 1915 now seem uncertain.

The United States and Turkey need each other. Armenia and Turkey are
not bound by any such ties of common interest.

CLINTON SAYS VOTE MIGHT ENDANGER ARMENIA-TURKEY RELATIONS

news.am
March 4 2010
Armenia

Obama administration is urging Congress to hold off on Genocide
Resolution discussed in the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on
March 4.

According to Associated Press, White House Spokesperson Mike Hammer
stated that yesterday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appealed to
Committee Chairman Howard Berman, noting that the vote will endanger
Armenia-Turkey reconciliation process.

The AP says the step breaks a campaign promise by President Obama to
label mass killings of Armenians as Genocide.

Official Ankara has warned that resolution might deteriorate
U.S.-Turkey relations and set back in Armenia-Turkey reconciliation,
RFE/RL reports.

APPROVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE BAR ASSOCIATION THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEESTATEMENT YEREVAN, ARMENIA, MARCH 03, 2010

Noyan Tapan
March 4, 2010

YEREVAN, MARCH 4, NOYAN TAPAN-ARMENIANS TODAY. The House Foreign
Affairs Committee of the USA is going to vote a resolution that will
recognize Armenian Genocide on 4 March. For that case the Council
of the Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia made a statement,
in which it’s said:

"The Council of the Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia in
view of the US President Barack Obama’s Statement on April 24, 2009
and the forthcoming voting on Armenian Genocide Resolution in the US
Congress states as follows:

In the conclusive paragraph of his Statement, right after using the
term "Meds Yeghern" for the second time, President Obama clearly
stated that there was an attempt to destroy the Armenian people:
"Nothing can bring back those who were lost in the Meds Yeghern. But
the contributions that Armenians have made over the last ninety-four
years stand as a testament to the talent, dynamism and resilience of
the Armenian people, and as the ultimate rebuke to those who tried
to destroy them".

It is necessary to utterly obliterate the international public
misconceptions that President Obama has not acknowledged the Armenian
Genocide because the term "genocide" was not spelled out. The
Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia hereby gives its legal
assessment to the Statement of President Obama.

The term "genocide" is relatively new. It was coined in 1944 by
Raphael Lemkin, a Polish legal scholar of Jewish descent. Prior to
that, each people subjected to genocide, had its own way of referring
to it. The Jewish people called it "Holocaust" and we, Armenian,
called it "Meds Yeghern".

Article 2 of the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was adopted in 1948 and
came into effect in 1951, defines genocide as "acts committed with
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial
or religious group".

President Obama used the historical Armenian term "Meds Yeghern", which
is synonymous to "genocide", a more contemporary term. The term "Meds
Yeghern" was used by President Obama twice, and was clearly described
as an attempt to destroy the Armenian people. It is obvious that "Meds
Yeghern" term was referred to by President Obama in exactly the same
meaning, as we, Armenians, refer to it. The terms "Meds Yeghern",
"Hayots Tseghaspanutiun", and "Armenian Genocide" have been always
absolutely identical. From the legal point of view President Obama
has described a genocide, because an attempt to destroy a people is,
by definition, a genocide.

Even though Obama the politician did not use the term "genocide",
Obama the lawyer, the graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law
School, has already clearly acknowledged the events of the Armenian
Genocide. On behalf of the Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia
we would like to express our gratitude to President Obama for his
historic Statement.

Taking into account the significance of international recognition
of genocide for purposes of preventing of the crime of genocide in
the future, we believe that it is the time to call things by their
proper names and to condemn the Meds Yeghern defining it as genocide
in unequivocal terms. In this respect we should greatly appreciate
the initiative of the US Congress and call upon it to approve the
Resolution".

AS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION MOVES TOWARD VOTE, SUPPORT IS TENUOUS
By Michael Doyle

Miami Herald
22/as-armenian-genocide-resolution.html
March 3 2010

WASHINGTON — Torn between international diplomacy and domestic
politics, the Obama administration is speaking softly and not using any
stick as a House of Representatives committee moves toward approving
a controversial Armenian genocide resolution Thursday.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee appears poised to approve the
resolution, which asserts that, "The Armenian Genocide was conceived
and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923."

House committee passage, however, is only one step in a campaign that’s
intended to get the U.S. House of Representatives on the record as
calling genocide the 1915-1923 events in which, by some counts, more
than 1.5 million Armenians perished. That goal still could be elusive.

"I’m optimistic, though I never underestimate the power of the Turkish
lobby," Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the resolution’s
author, said in an interview Wednesday.

The resolution has 137 House co-sponsors, far fewer than the 218
that are needed for approval by the full House, leaving two crucial
questions:

-Will House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., require the resolution’s
supporters to secure 218 co-sponsors before a full House vote?

-What’s President Barack Obama’s position, and how forthrightly will
he express it?

The 218 co-sponsor standard isn’t applied to every bill, but
congressional leaders could use it to keep the incendiary resolution
bottled up on procedural grounds.

Obama supported an Armenian genocide resolution when he was
campaigning for president, as have other candidates, but he avoided
the term "genocide" in his official statement last April marking
the events. His administration’s subsequent statements could be
interpreted as suggesting, but only obliquely, that Congress should
leave the issue alone.

"Our interests remain a full, frank and just acknowledgement of the
facts related to the historical events," Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee last Thursday. "But
the best way to do that, with all respect, is for the Armenians and
Turkish people themselves to address the facts of their past as part
of their efforts to move forward."

In a similar vein, Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautioned last month
that, "Anything that would impede the success of those (Turkish and
Armenian) discussions and negotiations I think is objectionable."

Schiff characterized the Obama administration’s apparent position
as "neutral," which he described as "a step forward" from the Bush
administration’s vocal opposition to the genocide resolution.

The resolution is a long-standing priority for the Armenian diaspora,
politically potent and concentrated in Florida, New Jersey and
California’s San Joaquin Valley. The 2000 census recorded 385,000 U.S.

residents of Armenian ancestry, three times the number who claim
Turkish ancestry.

Supporters call the resolution a necessary recognition of a
human-directed catastrophe in which more than a million Armenians
were killed or force-marched into the Syrian desert.

The resolution, however, is perennially troublesome for presidents,
who are pressed by worried U.S. military officers and diplomats,
as well as by Turkish officials. The Turkish government considers
the nonbinding resolution an insult to the nation’s 72 million people.

"We don’t want anything to interfere with our relations," Murat Mercan,
the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Turkey’s Grand National
Assembly, said in an interview.

Mercan, who once taught management at Cleveland State University, led
an eight-member parliamentary delegation this week to lobby against
the resolution. The public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard, which has
a $113,000-a-month contract with Turkey, according to public records,
assisted the delegation’s efforts.

Mercan warned that passing the resolution would "make it very
difficult if not impossible" for the Turkish legislature to ratify
protocols negotiated between Turkey and Armenia. The protocols seek
to reconcile the two countries, in part by establishing a historical
commission to research what happened during World War I and afterward.

American military contractors have joined the debate, with the chief
executive officers of Boeing, Lockheed Martin and three other defense
firms signing a joint letter last Friday warning that the resolution
posed "negative repercussions for U.S. geopolitical interests and
efforts to boost both exports and employments."