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The Lesson From Turkey & Armenia

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  • The Lesson From Turkey & Armenia

    THE LESSON FROM TURKEY & ARMENIA
    Hassan Masiky

    MoroccoBoard.com
    April 30 2009

    Let's hope politicians in Morocco and Algeria were following the news
    coming out of Ankara and Yerevan: Muslim Turkey and Christian Armenia
    have agreed to normalize their bilateral ties, putting decades of
    animosity behind them. It is a historical moment for both countries
    and a message to other nations involved in conflicts to overcome
    differences for the benefits of the advancement of their citizens. The
    significant of this event is magnified by the seriousness of the
    Armenian charge of "Genocide" against Turkey in the mass killings of
    thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915.

    While Armenia and its neighbor Turkey were working out a "road map"
    to normalize their relationship, Algeria and its neighbor Morocco were
    locked, again, in a war of words over the Western Sahara conflict. The
    "newly elected" President Bouteflika of Algeria used his "inaugural
    Speech" to compare the Moroccan presence in the Western Sahara to
    the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories belittling the
    Palestinian cause and showing a great intransigence toward the United
    Nations efforts to resolve the Sahara conflict. Such "Brezhnev era's
    Soviet Union" like statements from the Algerian President reinforce
    the existence sentiment that the so-called western Sahara conflict
    is an Algerian-Moroccan dispute that can only be resolved in direct
    bi-lateral negotiation between Rabat and Algiers.

    Historically, Morocco under the late King Hassan II approached
    the conflict over the Sahara as an argument with the late Algerian
    President Boumedienne. However, as the disastrous Moroccan diplomacy
    of the seventies and eighties stumbled and the Algerian position in
    support of the Algeria created Polisario separatist movement gained
    momentum, Morocco was compelled to deal with the Polisario in equal
    terms as an adversary. Presently, this argument does not stand. Both
    Morocco and Algeria are going through different historical stages
    that are bound to affect their policies in dealing with the Sahara
    Conflict. Whereas the Moroccan diplomacy, with all its lapses,
    has joined the twenty first century, the Algerian Foreign Ministry
    is stuck in the twilight zone, and will stay that way for few years
    to come with the return of Bouteflika for a third term. On the issue
    of the Western Sahara, Morocco's position has evolved with Rabat's
    local autonomy for the population of the Sahara while Algeria's
    stagnated. Accordingly, it is time to repaint this conflict with its
    true color: a border dispute between Morocco and Algeria.

    As long as the Western Sahara conflict is not framed as a grouping of
    the Moroccan-Algerian disputes over the Sahara, Tindouf and Beshar,
    all attempts by the United Nations to resolve the conflict will
    flounder. Actually, Algerian officials are first to admit that the
    bitter memory of the 1963 Sands War with Morocco is the driving force
    behind their government rigid anti-Morocco position disputing the
    legitimacy of Rabat presence in the Western Sahara. Consequently,
    resolving all and any leftover issues from this war hold the key to
    resolving the current crisis, as long as the resolution is through
    direct negotiations between the two Belligerents.

    The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara
    (MINURSO) has been waist of money. Similarly, the missions of
    successive UN envoys to the region were complete failure as most
    of the UN diplomats persisted in including the Polisario movement
    as an independent entity outside the influence of Algerian Military
    influence. It is naïve and unrealistic to believe that the Polisario
    leadership make independent decisions without direction from Algiers.

    It is becoming ever evident that the only way to resolve this long
    simmering conflict is to remove the Polisario element out of the
    equation, demark the Moroccan Algerian borders once for all, and
    address Algeria's geographical concerns in terms of access to the
    Atlantic Ocean.

    Rabat, unheeded, appeals to improve relations with Algiers are
    the first step to resolve all outstanding problems between the two
    countries. Algerians and Moroccans do not have to open borders but
    must settle the dispute over the Sahara and their borders as did
    Armenia and Turkey. With its obstinacy to address the underlining
    sources of its dispute with Morocco, the Algerian diplomacy will be
    eventually be tired by the international community as an out-of-date
    institution poorly adapted to the new realities in the region and
    overly influenced by bunch of political dinosaurs.

    King Mohamed VI has a vision for prosperous Morocco and Algeria
    where economy is more important than who controls which oasis in
    a desalt corner of the Sahara. With 35% unemployment, the Algerian
    government should be drafting plans to bring out their country out
    of the economical abyss instead of redirecting domestic opinion wrath
    against neighboring countries.

    The Armenian and Turkish leaders are visionaries who recognize the
    importance of prosperity versus demagogy and historical events that
    can be settled in time. I hope the leadership in Al-Moradia wakes up
    from its deep sleep and comes to terms with the demands of today's
    political realities. As Turks and Armenians dream of joining the
    European Union, Moroccans and Algerians continue to live a "Kafkasian"
    nightmare exasperated with a Bouteflika part III act.
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