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Leveraging Turkey-Armenia Protocols, Erdogan Presses Advantage Durin

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  • Leveraging Turkey-Armenia Protocols, Erdogan Presses Advantage Durin

    LEVERAGING TURKEY-ARMENIA PROTOCOLS, ERDOGAN PRESSES ADVANTAGE DURING DC VISIT

    Asbarez
    Dec 8th, 2009

    Escalates Genocide Denial, Pushes Preconditions, Reinforces Pressure
    on Nagorno Karabagh

    Asserts: "My ancestors have never committed genocide!"

    WASHINGTON-Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having secured
    at least temporarily, the silence of yet another Administration on the
    Armenian Genocide, has used his U.S. visit to further press Turkey's
    advantage-dramatically escalating his genocide denial rhetoric,
    reinforcing Turkey's "Protocols" preconditions for lifting its blockade
    of Armenia, and attempting to use Ankara's new found leverage in the
    Nagorno Karabakh peace process to deliver a pro-Azerbaijani settlement
    of this conflict, reported the Armenian National Committee of America
    (ANCA).

    "Today, more than seven months into the silence of yet another U.S.

    Administration on the Armenian Genocide, it's painfully clear that
    Erdogan has not, as President Obama had hoped, moved toward a full,
    frank and just acknowledgement of the facts - but rather sprinted in
    exactly the opposite direction, dramatically ramping up his denial
    rhetoric and pressing more aggressively against U.S. recognition of
    this crime," said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. "As
    we've said from day one, for Erdogan and his government, the Protocols
    are not about peace. They represent simply another tactic by Turkey
    to extend U.S. complicity in Turkey's denials from one April 24th to
    the next," added Hamparian.

    In addition to escalating his Armenian Genocide denial demands, Erdogan
    also made clear that his government would not respect either of the
    two U.S. priorities for Turkey-Armenia normalization: no preconditions
    and a reasonable timeframe.

    He continued to press for both the two Turkish preconditions
    hardwired into the protocols, namely a historical "commission" and the
    confirmation of borders, as well as a third unwritten precondition that
    the Nagorno-Karabakh issue be settled to Azerbaijan's satisfaction. At
    the same time, he firmly established that Turkey does not feel any
    obligation to move forward in a timely manner.

    Erdogan's comments came during a press conference held at the Willard
    Hotel, followed by a presentation at the Johns Hopkins University
    School of Advanced and International Studies (SAIS) and an evening
    speech at SETA-DC, touted as the only Turkish think tank in Washington,
    DC. He will continue presentations on Tuesday at the German Marshall
    Fund and later do a PBS television interview with Charlie Rose.

    During his think tank appearances, Prime Minister Erdogan pontificated
    - often in a lecturing and self-righteous tone - on a broad range of
    topics, from foreign policy to climate change and world poverty. The
    formats of these presentations, which featured highly controlled
    third-party participation, lent themselves to this type of one-way
    communication. The only exceptions were the few questions, submitted
    in writing, dealing with the Armenian Genocide and freedom of speech
    in Turkey. Both of these topics sparked angry and unscripted responses
    from Erdogan.

    Asked during his Johns Hopkins presentation by ANCA Communications
    Director Elizabeth Chouldjian about his thoughts on repeated statements
    by President Obama that his views had not changed on the "events on
    1915," Erdogan descended into a strident diatribe of denial of the
    Armenian Genocide, dismissing decades of scholarship documenting the
    systematic destruction of Turkey's Armenian population from 1915-1923.

    "My ancestors have never committed genocide," asserted Erdogan. "This
    is, in my opinion, not possible... Those people who speak of genocide,
    I don't know what documentation they base it on."

    Asked about recent Congressional rebuke of media repression in Turkey,
    Prime Minister Erdogan denied that there are restrictions on the
    press in Turkey, stating, "The press in Turkey is perhaps freer than
    the press in the U.S. - much more so, in my opinion."

    At SETA-DC, in response to a question on the ratification timeline
    of the Turkey-Armenia protocols, Prime Minister Erdogan stated
    that: "There are certain connections, which need to be taken into
    consideration, the first one of which being the relations between
    Azerbaijan and Armenia."

    "There is at the moment this concern in the Parliament and that's why
    we called the MINSK group - the United States, Russian Federation and
    France especially - to move forward in this area," Erdogan said. "If
    they can work on the Nagorno-Karabakh problem between Azerbaijan and
    Armenia, which has been ongoing for the last 20 years and if progress
    can be made towards a solution to the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh,
    then not only will problems between Azerbaijan and Armenia be resolved
    but also there will be a positive contribution to the process between
    Turkey and Armenia, whereby the parliaments will reflect upon their
    work, the good will and progress in the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh,
    and this what we would like to see happen."
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