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Nazarian: Davutoglu's Ill Conceived Plans To Engage The Diaspora Arm

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  • Nazarian: Davutoglu's Ill Conceived Plans To Engage The Diaspora Arm

    NAZARIAN: DAVUTOGLU'S ILL CONCEIVED PLANS TO ENGAGE THE DIASPORA ARMENIANS
    Ara Nazarian

    Armenian Weekly
    Apr 16 2010

    Ahmet Davutoglu

    For years, the Turkish official policy was to sow seeds of division
    between Armenians who still reside in Turkey, those residing in
    Armenia and the Diasporans by categorizing them as the good, the
    workable and the ugly. The Turkish Government knew full well that the
    Armenians in Turkey had to be very careful in their expressions, as
    their lives and those of their families along with their livelihood
    and belongings could be jeopardized very easily. So, at times these
    Armenians and the community leadership had to repeat official Turkish
    propaganda in order to stay safe, hence the good Armenian label. The
    workable group was referred to the Armenians in Armenia, who were
    lead to believe that the financial ills of their landlocked country
    will be alleviated the moment the Turkish-Armenian border was opened
    and economic activity would abound between the two nations (as a case
    in point, Turkey promised the EU to open the Cyprus border many years
    ago, yet no such action has taken place). If the Turkish government
    was so worried about these Armenians, financial well being, why did
    it close the borders in the first place? And why did it need a set
    of Protocols to open them now? Finally, the ugly group was referred
    to the Armenian Diaspora, who are by majority the direct descendants
    of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide with millennial roots in
    Western Armenia (Eastern Anatolia) with both land and financial claims.

    After the failure of the recent "rapprochement" efforts, by way of the
    protocols, directly due to the insincere nature of Turkey's policies
    in this arena, Mr. Davutoglu is aiming to engage the Armenian Diaspora
    as a means to buy more time towards its denial campaign. Therefore, he
    has instructed his ambassadors and consuls general in North America to
    reach out to the Armenian Diaspora. They have stratified the Armenian
    Diaspora into three groups: "those who derive benefits from claims of
    (genocide), those who migrated from Turkey but still have contacts
    there and those who are in the middle. Seeking ways to establish
    dialogue with these groups, the ambassadors and consuls general will
    particularly focus on the second (middle) group." Mr. Davutoglu's
    double entendre is not coincidental, neither is the real target of
    his latest "dialogue" efforts, as he is well aware of the tight rope
    that an Armenian who lives in Boston but is originally from Istanbul
    and still has friends and family in Turkey must walk to engage in a
    "dialogue" with the Turkish government.

    The Turkish Government is eons away from acknowledging the sins of its
    forefathers, as it is painfully demonstrated by the remarks made by
    Mr. Davutoglu's boss, the Turkish Prime Minister. Mr. Davutoglu knows
    full well that the Turkish Archives have been cleansed of incriminating
    evidence over the past 95 years: Mr. Davutoglu knows that his boss
    has just threatened to deport 100,000 Armenian from Turkey, who are
    working there illegally, a grossly overestimated figure, but one that
    resonates painfully with the Diaspora Armenians whose families have
    tasted the realities of Turkish "deportation" efforts: Mr. Davutoglu
    knows that his boss has categorically rejected the Armenian Genocide
    and has said that the Ottoman Empire even gave pocket money to the
    deportees to help with their journeys: Mr.

    Davutoglu knows that his boss has embraced President Bashir of Sudan
    and declared upon his visit to Sudan that he saw no genocide there:
    and Mr. Davutoglu knows that his boss has cried Genocide in Israel
    (victims: Palestinians) and China (victims: Uighurs) over the past
    year or so, where there were none.

    So, Mr. Davutoglu, whose Ministry could well be called Ministry of
    Damage Control, is grasping at every straw to make its Armenian
    problem go away; it tries to engage the Armenian Government with
    insincere efforts, which it seems to have backfired now; it engages
    in temper tantrums and blackmail when friends and allies dare to
    speak about this issue; and now it is trying to engage the Diaspora
    in a last ditch effort to salvage something out of the deadlocked
    protocols. This is of great importance for the Turkish Government,
    since its parliament is unlikely to ratify the protocols that were
    supported heavy handedly by the U.S. Government; it is against
    sanctions against Iran, another point of contention with the U.S.

    government; and it has markedly ratcheted up its hostility towards
    Israel, United States government's most important ally. Therefore,
    It is quite likely the United States might finally decide to
    officially acknowledge the Armenian Genocide to let Turkey know of
    its displeasure, and in the process it might have to dust off its
    plans to bypass the Incirlik Base in Turkey as a supply route, since
    there is a good chance that Turkey will block access to Incirlik,
    albeit temporarily.

    While the acknowledgement would be a great step for all humanity, it
    would be one taken for all the wrong reasons, as the U.S. Government,
    the so called champion of human rights in the world, should have
    recognized the Armenian Genocide decades ago on its merits, as it
    acknowledged the Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, the Rwandan
    Genocide (albeit painfully belatedly) and the Darfur Genocide.
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